


Can’t Touch This

by amuletgirl, prongslittleflower (violetsareblonde)



Series: The Marauders [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Contains profanity, F/M, Scenes of a sexual nature - Freeform, Sensitive Topic/Issue/Theme, Substance Abuse, mild violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-04-24 15:57:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14358765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuletgirl/pseuds/amuletgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetsareblonde/pseuds/prongslittleflower
Summary: "When people told us this year would be different, I didn't expect them to be right. But now we've got a girl hiding in another girl's body, and a bun in the oven, and I've never been so wrong before." Sixth year for the Marauders and company goes slightly unaccording to plans.





	1. And So It Begins...

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! As you may know, this is a story I have toyed with posting on the Archive for awhile but with it having been posted on both HPFF and Ff.net when I was originally writing it back in 2010, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go back and repost it here. However, with HPFF closing this month, I figured that now was a good time to revisit, edit some, and post again. So, if this seems like something you’ve already read, you’re probably right. But now the writing will be better than ever, and hopefully you want to revisit it as well. So, leave us your thoughts and comments, and as always, I hope you enjoy my take on the wonderful world of the Marauders. 
> 
> Prongslittleflower

Alexa’s Point of View

 

 

Sitting in Transfiguration, on a lovely fall afternoon, I suddenly felt a tugging at the back of my head. Thinking to myself ‘who is tugging at the back of my head?’ I decided to ask the question aloud. “Who is tugging at the back of my head?”

 

 

I turned around to see Sirius Black, his hand outstretched towards my curly brown hair. “I’m sorry,” He said, “I was tugging at the back of your head.”

 

 

Nodding understandingly, I smiled at him. “That’s all right, Sirius. It’s okay that you were tugging at the back of my head.” Turning back towards the front, I smiled to myself as we went on with McGonagall’s lesson. The rest of the day went swimmingly…

 

 

In actuality, this is how it truly went down.

 

 

Sitting in Transfiguration, I let out a measured sigh as I squeezed my hands into fists as yet another dull ache began at the crown of my skull. A second sharp tap came not a moment later. I felt myself growl low in my throat, the urge to strike back at the ebony haired Marauder behind me growing with each passing moment.

 

 

“Calm down, Alexa. You can’t let him know this bothers you,” Lyla, my older sister, always the voice of reason when I was about to lose my head, said. I raised my eyebrows at her as I heard snickering behind me. Crossing my arms over my chest, I tried to focus on McGonagall as she continued her lesson.

 

 

I thought back to the beginning of my first year at Hogwarts, trying not to dwell on the fact that even now, in my sixth year, Sirius Black could still be such a nuisance in my life. Looking across the classroom to where Lyla and I’s best friend sat, I made eye contact with the brunette looking my way. Blair Winchester, my best friend for six years, rolled her eyes at the boy sitting behind me, while the auburn haired girl next to her, tried to catch her attention. Bree Williams, the fourth girl in our gang of sixth year Gryffindors, waved slightly when she noticed me looking at her.

 

 

I raised my eyebrows at my two friends, and then looked back over to Lyla. My studious older sister was writing notes at a speed faster than I could watch without getting a headache. I thanked the lucky stars that my parents, my father containing the magical side that ran through our veins, were disappointed about not having twins and decided to have us 9 months apart; otherwise I’d never have made it through the past few years with only a few bad grades scattered throughout. As I studied her features, I mused on how different we were, not only in looks but also in attitude. Lyla had wonderfully straight, dark brown hair that fell just at her shoulders, while my own brown hair was lighter in hue and waved when I needed it to be straight. Her intellectual blue eyes made you feel comfortable and like you could go to her with anything, while my own deep green eyes were usually ready to show people the door on their way out.

 

 

A sharp tug at my ponytail reminded me that, even in my own thoughts, I was never safe. Unable to stop myself, even as Lyla’s side-glance warned me, I whipped around in my seat, glaring at the gray eyes that met my own. “What?” I whispered, narrowing my eyes as the illustrious Sirius Black shrugged and leaned back in his seat. “I’m not kidding,” I said, avoiding the use of the word serious for fear of major pun-unintended backlash. “What do you want?”

 

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sirius smiled, his bright teeth glinting in the dulled light of the afternoon classroom, and I tried to make my face go blank so not to give away the anger I was feeling. “You better pay attention.” I felt my jaw clench, the maddening smile on Sirius’ face turning into a smirk, and I whipped back around in my seat as my cheeks started to redden.

 

 

That was the other problem I had. Aside from the fact that Lyla’s small crush on Remus that had started the beginning of fifth year had now bloomed to full on ‘love from afar’ and the fact that James and Blair had been hot and heavy for a few months now, meaning that we were in constant touch with the Marauder’s, I had no desire to hang out with one Sirius Black. Because even though he irritated me to no end, and was the root of all things I considered evil, I had one glaring problem.

 

 

I was, essentially, hopelessly in lust with him.

 

 

Now, I say lust because, surely, this can’t be love? Was wanting to strangle the person you fancied love? I didn’t think so.

 

 

As I tuned back into McGonagall’s lecture, I noticed that the parchment I kept with me during classes was starting to form words, a light blue ink staining the page, seemingly as if it was writing on its own. I looked back across the classroom, where Blair was huddled over her own piece of parchment, her quill with a light blue feather at the end waving in the air.

 

 

_You look fit to kill. How’s it going over there?_

 

 

Digging out my own quill, this one, with a green feather instead of blue, I made sure McGonagall was busy lecturing before I picked my wand up from the table and muttered a short incantation under my breath. Lyla looked over at me, but only rolled her eyes at our messing about during class time, occasionally looking over to see what Blair and I had written.

 

 

_Beyond boring. And I am fit to kill. Your boyfriend’s best friend should be minced meat by sundown if his shenanigans continue. What’s going on over there? Is there homework? Will we actually do it???_

 

 

_ I literally could not tell you. There was a pause in the writing, and I saw Blair leaning forward, where Lily Evans, who rivaled my sister for top Gryffindor Bookworm, was sitting. Then, We don’t have homework. But if you want, and why would you??, there is extra credit… _

 

 

_Yeah, let’s get real._

 

 

_ Also, don’t kill Sirius just yet. James will be disappointed and I really want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend. I definitely will not be watching him sulk because his best friend is dead and I really don’t want to go to a funeral. _

 

 

I smiled down at the parchment, looking up quickly when McGonagall signaled the end of class. Packing my things, I carefully folded the paper up into my book, and put my quills inside my bag. I heard the chair next to me scoot away, and then Lyla was muttering a ‘catch up with you in a minute’ and making her way towards the door, where Remus was waiting for her and Lily.

 

 

“A little prefect action happening?” I asked Blair who was now standing beside me. We began our own walk towards the exit of the classroom, Bree having walked ahead as well to catch up with her own man-candy.

 

 

“If only there was no Andy. She is literally the devil, as her name so deftly implies.” Blair said, letting out a sigh, and pulling a compact out of her bag to check her makeup. We were meeting James and the rest of his gang of hooligans at the lake, and I smiled at my friend, who even after a few months of dating, still wanted to look her best. Tucking a piece of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail behind my ear, I thought about Lyla’s current predicament.

 

 

As though fate had decided to play a joke on my dear sister, Remus was currently involved with a seventh year Gryffindor by the name of Andy Ablo. No joke; if you said her name fast enough it was basically el Diablo. The devil. Which is exactly what she was. Seemingly only kind to Remus, or maybe she was blackmailing him into dating her, she was the snootiest, snottiest, bitchiest girl I had met in my life; and I was friends with Bree.

 

 

So, as per usual in situations such as these, Lyla was left to pine for her prince. The truly unfortunate thing was, they really would be perfect together. Both studious to a fault, they could each still have a good time. They were both kind, gentle, compelling. And they looked great together; Remus’ sandy blondish hair contrasting with her dark locks. His tallness to her shortness. Definitely my favorite dream couple. Alas, it was seemingly not to be.

 

 

“Can I bow out of the lake?” I asked as we neared the doors that would lead us out of the castle, and Blair gave me a ‘no way in hell’ look as she put her hand out in front of her to signal I go first. I pouted, pushing my way out into the late afternoon air.

 

 

The Marauder’s were already by the lake, sitting in a semi-circle as James gestured around, telling some sort of story with his arms and hands. Sirius, looking bemused, was lounging in the grass, his eyes occasionally flitting around as various girls strutted their stuff in front of them. It was a regular occurrence around the nefarious boys, and one that did not go unnoticed even though I wish it would. Peter, the last of the gang, was sitting cross-legged with his back to us.

 

 

“Whatever lies you’re telling your friends must be immensely interesting,” Blair called out, and James looked over, smiling at his girlfriend as she approached. I hoisted my bag higher onto my shoulder, ignoring Sirius as he turned our way.

 

 

“Bear, you know that all my stories are true. Marauder’s honor.” James said, reaching out towards Blair to take her bag from her as she sat down next to him. They leaned in for a kiss, and I turned away so as not to interrupt their private moment. This, however, led me straight to the path of Sirius Black, who was raising an eyebrow at me.

 

 

“Your ponytail is looking a little drab there, Lex.” He smirked, and I reached up to tighten my hair band, glaring at him.

 

 

“I have told you so many times to stop calling me that. It’s getting old.” I rolled my eyes before dropping my back to the ground and sitting down with my back towards the lake. “Besides, only my friends get to shorten my name. And, oh look, you’re not my friend.”

 

 

“You love me. You just won’t admit it.” Sirius bit back, brushing a hand through his hair and smiling as a third year and her friend meandered by. I rolled my eyes, looking over to James and Blair who were laughing at Sirius.

 

 

“Yes, well, I know we said it’d be great to all just hang out and unwind after class, but I thought Blair and I would take a walk, alone.” James ruffled his hair up, using his other hand to push his glasses back up his nose and I shared a look with Blair who was blushing.

 

 

“Well, if you wanted to make out, all you have to do is say so,” I winked at my blushing friend and stood, grabbing my bag off the ground. “Boys,” I announced to Peter and Sirius, “Let’s scram.”

 

 

James laughed as Blair tried to let us know that we were welcome to stay and that we could all hang out, but I knew what they really wanted to do and I didn’t mind too much in leaving them to it. Call me a sucker for young love, but you could also call me out for not wanting to stay and watch the happy couple be happy. There was something about being single and watching other couples give each other ‘the eyes.’ It just wasn’t ideal.

 

 

As Sirius fell in beside, Peter trailing behind slightly, watching his footing so he wouldn’t trip, I thrust my bag onto his shoulder and shrugged when he gave me an outraged look. “For calling me ‘Lex.’” I let a disgusted look pass over my face, sticking my tongue out like the name left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

 

“You look really attractive when you make that face,” He retorted back, but kept my bag on his shoulder nonetheless. I smiled to myself, and we walked in a relatively easy silence back to the Gryffindor common room.

 

 

“Hey, you’re back early!” I said, as Lyla and Remus walked through the portrait hole half-an-hour later. Lyla, however, looked less than happy to see us. I realized why as Andy stepped out from behind Remus. “Oh, you’re here too.” I said, although my voice was noticeably less enthused.

 

 

“So good to see you, Alexa. I see that you’re still thinking shabby chic is a good look?” Andy looked me up and down, and I frowned. I knew that I wasn’t on my best game today what with waking up late and favoring food over makeup, but did I really look that bad?

 

 

Remus sighed, but instead of defending us, he just said his goodbyes and he and Andy disappeared up the stairs to the boy’s dormitories. “Interesting.” Sirius said, as Lyla sat down next to us.

 

 

“What’s that?” She said, looking tired and a little down. I tilted my head at her, trying to ask her without words if she was okay. Our sisterly bond seemed to be working as she gave me a weak smile and inclined her head slightly.

 

 

“Just that Andy is truly the bitchiest banana of them all.” We gave Sirius a confused look, and he rolled his eyes at us, before turning back to his homework in front of him and shutting his book dramatically. “Well, I seriously,” He paused to wait for a reaction, and getting none, continued, “Need a break. Any ideas on how you two lovely ladies could keep my attention?” He wiggled his eyebrows and I was about to make a disgusted comment when an idea struck me. It would get back at Sirius for being a prick and make Lyla happy all at the same time.

 

 

“Oh, I think I know a way. Meet us in the sixth year girl’s dorm in ten minutes. And come alone.” I winked at him, surprising myself at how smooth I was being, before I stood up and gathered my things. Lyla looked at me in surprise but I just smiled at her, before tripping over the table in the middle of the group of chairs we were around and dropping my book to the floor. Parchment scattered around and I felt my face flush as I gathered it up quickly.

 

 

So much for being smooth.

 

 

“What could you possibly be thinking that would make this a good idea?” Lyla said after we had gotten to our room and deposited our stuff onto our beds. I walked over to Lily’s vanity, borrowing the chair, as it was the only one unoccupied by clothes, shoes, or magazines.

 

 

“Get your makeup from the bathroom,” I instructed my sister as I put the chair between our beds. “I think we should give Sirius a makeover.” Her eyes lit up and I nodded enthusiastically. “How funny would that be? Plus, it means that we don’t have time to think about Remus and Andy.”

 

 

“Well, I’m kind of thinking about it since you just brought it up.” Lyla said, raising her eyebrow at me, but then rolling her eyes and giving me a new smile.

 

 

There was a knock at the door, and I turned off the light, sitting on my bed and gesturing for Lyla to do the same. “Come in,” I said, false sultriness in my voice as Lyla and I burst into giggles. Sirius opened the door, slowly walking in as his eyes adjusted to the light.

 

 

“We’re over here,” Lyla said, and I saw Sirius grin as he shut the door and walked towards our voices. As he got closer, Lyla and I stood, walking to either side of him and bringing him closer to the beds. Then, at once, we pulled him hard and sat him in the chair, using a charm to tie him up. As we turned the lights on, I put my hands on my hips and smirked at him.

 

 

“What the fuck is this?” He asked, surprise, confusion, and a little terror coloring his voice.

 

 

“An ambush. We’ve decided to give you a makeover.” Lyla smiled winningly, and horror leaked over Sirius’ face.

 

 

“Don’t you dare.” I slowly unzipped the makeup bag in my hand and brought out various tools. “I’m not joking with you. There will be hell to pay if you do this to me.”

 

“Oh, but there will be hell to pay if we don’t.” I gave me a grin, and then set to work on gathering the correct supplies. As Lyla and I debated color-correction toner, and the proper eye shadow to compliment his eye color, the door opened to show Blair and James.

 

 

“Uhm, Peter was asleep downstairs, so we thought you all would be up here since Remus and the devil are occupied, but I’m not sure what we walked in on.” James said, his hand still on the door, looking like he would bolt at any minute if the need arose.

 

 

“Makeover!” Blair squealed, recognizing at once the headband we were using to push back Sirius’ hair and the brushes set out on my bed. “I call dibs on the lip choice!”

 

 

I nodded happily while Lyla did a little clap, and James finally shut the door while walking over to sit on Lyla’s unoccupied bed. “You’re in a real pickle, mate.” He said to Sirius while he got comfortable and watched as we began to apply foundation and blush to the squirming boy.

 

 

“I swear to you, Prongs, this goes against every Marauder code ever written. You will face reprimanding for this. Ouch!” Sirius looked at Blair with hurt in his eyes. “That hurt!”

 

 

“Well, stop moving, then. Your eyebrows aren’t just going to pluck themselves.” He flinched back again, but this made no difference to Blair, who just held his chin still with one hand while working on his eyebrows with another hand that held a pair of tweezers.

 

 

Half an hour later, we stepped back to survey our work. “Really, really excellent. I mean you look like a whole new person.” Lyla said, a grin working its way onto her face. She looked happier, more upbeat than before, and I felt not only like I had accomplished one mission, but two.

 

 

“Sirius, you make such a lovely girl. Would you like to see?” I asked, and he glared at me through heavily lined and mascara’d eyes. His pouty lips had been colored in with ‘peppy pink’ and his cheeks flushed with ‘rogue red.’ Blair held up a mirror as James laughed giddily from the bed.

 

 

“I honestly will ruin your lives.” Sirius said in a deadpan voice. We were all complimenting different aspects of his new look when the door opened. We stopped and looked over quickly to see Lily Evans standing in the doorway looking less than pleased.

 

 

“What is going on?” She demanded, and I could see the way that James tensed. After a mishap in fifth year where James had tried to help Lily and she had rejected his help in favor of helping a Slytherin with an attitude and a pension for calling people horrific names, there had been less the ice in the veins of their relationship.

 

 

“We were just having a bit of fun, Lily.” Lyla stood a little straighter, looking at her fellow prefect. As they had been neck in neck for the last two years, Dumbledore had surprised them both when naming them prefects. It had been a running competition ever since.

 

 

“Fun? By breaking the rules and having boys in the girl’s dorms?” Lily looked less than pleased by this. “Is that my chair?” She asked, her voice starting to rise. James stood, releasing Sirius from his bonds, and both boys began to walk towards the door, James giving Blair a slight kiss on the cheek before they left.

 

 

“Well, I guess the fun’s over then,” I said, starting to clean up our mess, the fun of the day wearing off as Lily huffed to herself, muttering under her breath as she put her chair back and shut the curtains on her bed. We all gathered onto Lyla’s bed, lounging about, reading and doing various other things while we waited for dinner.

 

 

There was a tapping on the window, and I looked up to see an ebony owl pecking at the glass. “Who sent that?” Blair asked, and I shrugged while Lyla got up to get the letter. As she sat it down on the bed, I couldn’t help the laugh that burst from my lips. Inside was a picture of Sirius, blinking his eyes for the camera and giving his best come hither look before dissolving into laughter. A few words were written under the picture, and we all laughed when reading them.

 

 

_Payback will be truly alluring._

_Signed,_

_The Marauders_


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost like they were pulled by a string, 30 of my classmates snitched, and pointed towards Lily and I. Slughorn shook his head in disbelief, not wanting to acknowledge that two of his best students had turned his classroom into a potions disaster. I opened my mouth, to apologize or to try to reason with him, but Toad-Andy chose that moment to interrupt, turning from the toad she was always meant to be, back into a very irate, and slightly still mud-brown human girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: JK Rowling has just given me the rights…but not to Harry Potter. She has only given me the rights of a restraining order. Is there some way around that?
> 
> Amulet Girl’s Note: Hey everyone! Sorry for the slow update, but I’ve been away for two weeks, doing charity work in Haiti and thus didn’t have the time to update while I was away! But now I’m back and with a lovely little chapter for you! Thanks for all the reviews so far, and we hope to see you continue this story with us. Enjoy!
> 
> UPDATE: This chapter has been rewritten as of May 9th, 2018. Not much has changed, just an update in our writing skills, and a clearing up of some plot points. :)

_Lyla’s Point of View_

 

Walking to potions with Blair and James was, frankly, a little nauseating. Partly because it seemed like they were all over each other twenty-four hours a day, but also because, honestly, I was a little jealous. There was a part of me that I couldn’t deny wanting to be like Blair, to have someone who was so open about how much they liked me; I wanted to be with someone who wanted to be with me, and just me.

 

Of course, with my luck, the boy I liked not only didn’t seem to like me, but was dating someone else, who I couldn’t even begin to describe as anything other than evil. It wasn’t that she isn’t pretty, or seemingly smart, but her attitude towards those she deems as ‘unworthy’ could be vastly improved. But she deemed Remus as worthy, and because she has long legs and assets that far surpass my own, I get why he likes her, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.

 

“Hey, Lyla.” Snapping out of my reverie on how much I don’t like Andy Ablo (and don’t get me started on that name), I turned towards the source of the sound, finding Remus and the devil herself speaking to me as they passed by. Remus looked down at his black school shoes, not acknowledging my existence, but Andy continued to smile at me, almost as if she knew how devastated I was that I was stuck in a place with Remus where things were, at best, awkward.

 

“Andy,” I responded, all the while wishing I wasn’t so damn polite all the time. I may have been talking to a wall for all the response I got, because she completely ignored me and turned the corner. I tried not to let it get me down, but it was difficult when she was dating the guy I had had a crush on since second year. Pushing off the wall where I had been waiting for my less than timely sister, I followed the rest of the people walking down the dungeons to the Potions classroom.

 

Much to my surprise, however, Alexa was already waiting for the rest of our little group at the door. She looked up at me as I neared, turning from what looked like a stilted conversation with Sirius. “What up?” She greeted, and I rolled my eyes at her, sending a wink her way when Sirius had turned his attention elsewhere. Her usually pale skin blushed a deep red, and she shoved off the wall, walking into the classroom without another word.

 

She and Sirius had been spending a bit more time together than usual, and I could tell that even though she thought she was hiding her crush on the tall, ebony haired Marauder, that it wasn’t working so well as she had hoped. Sirius, however, seemed none-the-wiser.

 

“Oh, I know this joke! The sky.” Blair said, looking proud of herself as she followed after Alexa into the classroom. It took me a moment to recall what she was talking about, and I shared a look with James, who grimaced a smile, and followed his girlfriend into the classroom.

 

“What an odd bunch,” Sirius muttered to himself, before sweeping his arm in front of him for me to enter the classroom before him. I nodded in agreement, taking my seat next to my sister, who studiously avoided Sirius’ gaze as he passed by.

 

“Wow, we have some awesome friends.” Alexa said, motioning towards James, who looked like he was trying to explain why asking someone ‘what’s up’ wasn’t always a joke. I opened my mouth to agree, when Slughorn swept into the room, a smile on his face and his deep belly laugh present in his eyes.

 

“I just heard the most wonderful joke,” He started, and the class groaned, settling into our seats as we prepared ourselves for a rousing Slughorn joke which would take up half the class time and then, if we played our cards right, he would spend the next half trying to explain to us. At our groaning, however, he paused and took a look at the notes he had written on his desk, then turned back to us. “It appears though that we don’t have time for that particular joke today, as we have a Forgetfulness Potion to brew and a rather lengthy essay to begin.”

 

The sounds of disappointment started up around the room again, but Slughorn raised a hand towards us. “I will be choosing your partners for this assignment,” Another round of disappointed sighing, “But if you finish the potion before the end of class, you may leave early.” Almost the whole class perked up at this news, including Alexa, who looked like she couldn’t wait to bolt from the classroom.

 

“What’s up with you?” I whispered, but she shook her head at me, her fist crumbling around a piece of paper that she hadn’t had beforehand. Her face was still blushing, the flush spreading to her neck, and I turned away from her, looking for the source of her embarrassment. Before I could locate the person, Slughorn began to read the list of partners, and my fate was sealed as I looked at the red-head at the front of the room.

 

Lily Evans and I, to put it lightly, had never really gotten along. Blame it on the fact that I had been in competition with her for six years for top academic spot in Gryffindor, or that one day in second year I had used her favorite nail polish and dropped it on the floor, spilling the whole vat on accident, but we had just never really liked each other. Part of me suspected that it was because after an incident last year between Snape, Lily, and James, I had defended James’ actions against Snape, but things had really only devolved from there.

 

I took my seat, dropping my bag lightly on the floor while flipping to the correct page in my Potions book. “Would you like to stir the potion or chop ingredients?” I tried to ask calmly as she continued to scribble on a piece of parchment that she had just received from Andy. I looked up at Slughorn, who looked well involved in a nap, and then back at my partner. “Earth to Evans?” I said a bit louder.

 

She let out a ‘why me’ sigh, and then turned her emerald gaze towards me. “Whatever you want, Parker.” She gave me a withering stare, and then turned back to her note. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from opening up on her, and then peeked over to see what was so interesting about this note. Quickly skimming the earlier parts of the parchment, I quickly read the words ‘ugly, annoying, whore’ in quick succession with Blair’s name.

 

Indignation coursed through me, and without thinking, I snatched the parchment from Lily and tossed it into our cauldron. Lily jumped up in her seat, knocking her stool back some and putting her hands on her hips as she faced me. “What the hell was that?” She whisper-shouted, trying not to draw the ire of our sleeping Potions Master.

 

“You and Andy are talking shit about my best friend! That’s what that was.” I pointed my finger at her, the anger in me rising to the surface.

 

“Oh, really? And what gives you the right to just snatch my paper away from me? You’ve always thought pretty highly of yourself, Lyla, I guess you think that gives you the right to police other people’s thoughts.” Lily took a step closer to me, and I rose from my own seat, my stool squeaking drawing the attention of the class.

 

“Lyla,” James whispered urgently from behind us, where he and Alexa were working on their own potion.

 

“Shut up, Potter.” Lily snapped back, turning on him and drawing her wand. He looked affronted, but only for a moment, as he looked back at the cauldron that was bubbling an awful shade of eggplant on our desk.

 

Lily and I turned our attention back to the cauldron, that was reacting very unlikely with the addition of parchment. As if summoned by the dark things happening in our vicinity, Andy started to walk over towards us. In some twist of fate, or perhaps just extremely bad luck, when she got close enough, the potion exploded, and we all ducked, except Andy who took the brunt of the purple goop right to the face.

 

Almost immediately, I knew something had gone terribly wrong while we brewed distractedly. Andy’s skin started to turn a frightening shade of what could only be described of as mud-brown, and then she started to shrink. As we all let out a frightened shout, she opened her mouth to scream, only for it to be replaced by a distinctive ‘ribbit.’ And then, without further ado, she disappeared completely, leaving a small brown toad in her place.

 

Nothing happened for a good thirty seconds, and then Alexa let out the giggliest peal of laughter I have ever heard in my life. The class followed along, as Lily looked at toad-Andy sitting on the floor in disbelief. I stood stock still in my spot, shock showing on my face as if it was always there.

 

“That was bloody brilliant,” I heard Sirius’ barking laughter from the back of the room, where he sat with Remus, who was trying to contain his own smile, as his girlfriend began to ribbit on the floor.

 

The only person who wasn’t smiling was Lily, who turned to look at me with murder on her face. “What the _hell_ is wrong with you, Parker!” She lunged forward, grabbing a handful of what looked like dragon liver, and threw it at me with as much force as she could muster. In a show of reflexes I didn’t know I had, I ducked out of the way, leading to the full brunt of the slimy mixture to land directly in Alexa’s hair.

 

“You are going to wish you had never done that,” Alexa said in an eerily calm voice, before she lunged over the table towards Lily, a vial of unknown potion substances in her hand. Before she could get too far, Sirius had restrained her, grabbing her around the middle and hauling her back. She fought against him, managing to shake loose the vial in her hand enough to toss it towards Lily, who dodged, but knocked against the table behind her, tossing it over and watching as a cauldron full of ‘forgetfulness’ potion spilled all over the dungeon floor. The poor Ravenclaws looked at each other, before someone from the back shouted ‘potions fight’ and all hell broke loose.

 

As different ingredients were launched at each other from around the room, Sirius and Alexa started bickering, which ended in her pouring a vile of dragon’s blood down his face. In turn, he took it upon himself to dump beetle eyes down the back of her shirt. Lily had drawn her wand and was pointing it at me, causing me to grab a book which I later would find out belonged to James and throw it at her. Toad-Andy was jumping around, ribbiting and managing to not get stepped on. And right when things were about to get a bit hairy between Blair and a rather irate Ravenclaw, Slughorn stood up from his nap, looking around the room and bellowing a massive ‘enough.’

 

The room quieted almost immediately. “Who is responsible for this disaster?” He asked, disbelievingly looking around the classroom, his eyes widening as he took in the damage. No one responded, everyone remaining loyal to each other. He walked to the front of his desk, giving us all a hard look. “If no one is willing to talk, then you will all have detention and 50 points each taken from your house.”

 

Almost like they were pulled by a string, 30 of my classmates snitched, and pointed towards Lily and I. Slughorn shook his head in disbelief, not wanting to acknowledge that two of his best students had turned his classroom into a potions disaster. I opened my mouth, to apologize or to try to reason with him, but Toad-Andy chose that moment to interrupt, turning from the toad she was always meant to be, back into a very irate, and slightly still mud-brown human girl.

 

Slughorn’s mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. “I just, I, how could,” He paused to collect himself, before opening his mouth again.

 

“Actually, Professor, I was involved as well.” Alexa said, still shaking her arm some to dislodge the beetles in her shirt. He looked at her like she was crazy, and then resolved himself to the possibility that she probably was involved. She winked at me, not wanting me to go down on my own.

 

“Me too, sir.” Sirius said from where he was wiping blood off his face, leaving it streaky green. Slughorn sighed in defeat, before turning his attention to James, who was watching the show with glee.

 

“I can only assume if Mr. Black was involved that Mr. Potter and Mr. Lupin had something to do with this as well.” Objections came from both boys, as Sirius turned to look at them triumphantly. “I will not hear another word of this. You will all report to my office after dinner at 8:00 sharp. And Mr. Potter, I will not tolerate tardiness. Is that understood?” There was a chorus of ‘Yes, Professor’ and then Slughorn turned back towards his seat, sitting again with a slump. “Class dismissed.”

 

As we walked dejectedly back towards the Common Room to shower off the various potions we were covered in, Alexa sidled close to me, looking covertly around before she smiled evilly. “I think we should definitely cause some ruckus in detention tonight.” I rolled my eyes at her, wondering why if she was trying to be secretive she was still talking in a normal voice.

 

“I’m down with the plan,” James said, siding up towards my other side, and swinging his arms violently as he walked. I dodged an elbow to the stomach, and pulled away from the two maniacs I called friends.

 

“No, we will serve our detention and try to ignore how terribly this day has gone.” I said, crossing my arms in front of myself to look stern. Alexa and James looked at each other, and then walked around me, closing in on each other and talking secretly with their heads bowed as we made our way down the corridor.

 

“Some kids never learn, aye, Lyls?” Sirius asked as we continued walking behind them. I rolled my eyes at the Marauder, focusing instead on how I was going to get this goo out from behind my ears.

 

As we descended the stairs of the Common Room later that afternoon, having successfully gotten rid of the morning’s goop, we arrived to see James sleeping half on the couch, half on the floor, and Sirius playing Wizard’s Chess by himself. I tried to contain my laughter, clearing my throat to see what would happen.

 

Blair, on the other hand, couldn’t contain her laughter as James fell completely off the couch, hastily wiping the drool off his face and passing a hand through his hair, a nervous habit he had always had. Sirius, on the other hand, didn’t move, looking deep in thought. “Earth to dumbass?” Alexa said, leaning in closer to him and checking out the board he had set up.

 

Sirius waved her off, concentrating before moving one last piece and uttering a cool ‘Check Mate.’ Alexa and I exchanged a look, rolling our eyes in unison as he stood up looking proud of himself.

 

“Are you high?” Alexa asked him expecting an answer just as crazy as he was.

 

He smiled at her kindly, and then reached down and ruffled her meticulously styled up-do. “Are you?” He laughed at her expression of rage, and then walked towards the entrance of the Common Room as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Her eyes widened, and with her crazy hair, she looked all the more like a stereotypical witch.

 

“I’ll kill you, Black!” She shouted, taking off after him as his gleeful laughter filled the air.

 

\--

 

Later that night, we solemnly walked to what could only be described as hell. All day I had avoided Lily and Andy, quite a feat when we were in the majority of our classes together. But now, the time had come to meet my maker. As Blair, Alexa, and I pushed the door to the classroom open, we were greeted by a sparkling clean room, and the death stare of Lily and Andy. Slughorn sat happily at his desk, sipping from a goblet and lazily eating what looked like candied pineapple.

 

He nodded to us in greeting, and we moved to take the farthest table and chairs from Andy and Lily, who were sat up front. I looked at my watch, when after 10 minutes of waiting there was no sign of the Marauders. It slowly ticked past 8:15, and I sighed, knowing we couldn’t start until they got here.

 

Just as Alexa leaned forward from her seat behind us to ask about the whereabouts of our mischievous friends, the door bust open, a harried looking Remus and James walking quickly into the room, irritation on their faces. They moved to sit in the middle of the room, leaving their final friend to waltz in last, his shirt half-buttoned and his belt loose.

 

“Sorry, Professor, a previous engagement took a bit longer than expected.” Sirius shot Alexa a wink, and she rolled her eyes, turning away from him and focusing on the front of the room. He finished doing himself up, and took a seat behind James and Remus. Slughorn looked at the three boys, seemingly not understanding what Sirius had been talking about, and then sighed as he stood up and grabbed his goblet and his candy.

 

“Not to worry, my boy. The three of you may finish your detention tomorrow night.” James turned to glare at his best friend, who shrugged in apology. “Now, let’s begin. I’ll be pairing you off, making note to not put my brightest together again,” He looked towards me, then to Lily, shaking his head. I felt a jolt of embarrassment at a teacher thinking I couldn’t be trusted, but then he was moving on. “And you will be spending the next hour cleaning old cauldrons.”

 

His gaze traveled to a collection of cauldrons on the back wall, that looked like they’d been brewing for a hundred years. I grimaced, turning to Blair who looked like she was regretting involving herself with us as friends.

 

“Let’s see here. We’ll have Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans together, then Ms. Winchester and Ms. Ablo, and that leaves the Parker sisters with Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black.” Alexa breathed a sigh of relief, standing up before I could and walking towards the empty seat next to Remus. “No, Miss Parker, I believe you could stand to work with Mr. Black.”

 

Alexa looked up, her eyes wide and face ashen. “You know what, I’d really just prefer to work alone. Truly. It’s fine. I can do double the work if that’s the case, but I really would just prefer to work alone. I have this horrific contagious disease, you see, and I’d hate for Black to get sick because he was sitting next to me.”

 

Slughorn raised an eyebrow, looking at her in exasperation. “And you’d much prefer Mr. Lupin to then contract this disease instead?”

 

“He’s immune?” Alexa tried, and obviously failed, as Slughorn continued to blank face her. With a groan, she picked up her bag from the chair, and went back a seat to fall into the chair next to Sirius. He scooched closer, opening his mouth to speak, when Alexa raised a hand and covered his lips. “If you’d like to continue breathing on your own, I suggest you keep your mouth shut.” She ground out, before removing her hand and wiping it on her robes in a show of disgust.

 

Slughorn directed our attention back towards him, and clapped his hand. “Now, I’ve got to pop out for just a moment, but I expect to come back to spotless cauldrons and spotless students. Get to it.”

 

With a sigh, I rose from my seat and walked up to Slughorn’s desk to grab the cleaning supplies, then headed towards the cauldrons at the back of the room to pick my poison, so to speak. I watched as Alexa pushed Sirius back down in his chair, threatening with her open palm if he caused any mischief, and then set to work herself, cleaning the cauldron to the best of her ability. Sirius sat back in his chair, arms folded across his chest as he watched with rapt attention as my sister’s curly ponytail swung back and forth with each movement.

 

I heard Remus laugh from next to me, and I turned to look at him, blushing slightly and looking back towards our cauldron before my face betrayed my feelings. Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention to us, I paused in my cleaning to peek at Remus. “She really does like him, you know.” I felt my mouth close, wondering why I had just spouted one of my sister’s biggest secrets to the friend of her famed crush.

 

“She hides it well, unless you know what to look for.” Remus agreed, turning slightly to look at them over his shoulder. He let out an amused laugh as Alexa turned sharply, eyeing Sirius’ arm that had found its way draped across the back of her chair. A small growl passed through her lips, but Sirius only smirked, leaving his arm and forcing Alex to scoot as far off the chair as she could. Remus turned back towards me. “Don’t tell him I told you this, but he has a thing for her too; above all the teasing, I do think it’s genuine.”

 

My breath caught slightly in my throat as I looked into his eyes. They were a beautiful golden color, something I’d never noticed in anyone else; they weren’t the hazel of James, or the stormy grey of Sirius’, but almost caramel in their color, brighter gold around his pupils. I hadn’t noticed we were staring at each other, until my gaze shifted from his eyes to the rest of his face, and he shyly looked away from me. I cleared my throat, turning back to the cauldron, but motioning for him to go on with what he was saying before the moment.

 

“Uh, right, he’s just had a tough life. He expresses himself a little wildly sometimes.” Remus motioned for me to hand him the cleaning rag I was using, and I handed it over, blushing again as his fingers lightly brushed mine. Guilt was edging in on my subconscious, screaming at me that he had a girlfriend, but I couldn’t help how my heart raced around him.

 

“Sometimes people don’t know how to express themselves, so they do it in the only way they know how.” I watched as Remus scrubbed at the cauldron, his sleeves rolled up to show his surprisingly lean muscled forearms. “Or some people just don’t express themselves at all, and then the person has nothing to talk about to anyone, and they end up alone and by themselves, with thirty cats and dying at 100.” I was out of breath by the time I finished my rambling, not realizing that I had said too much until I was half-way through that glorious monologue and Remus had stopped his scrubbing to look at me.

 

I chanced a glance up at him, noticing his bemused expression, and feeling the blush that had been on my cheeks seeping down to my chest, making me feel warm and embarrassed. Luckily, he recognized my embarrassment, putting the rag on the table and turning his attention back towards me with a warm, calming expression. “So, you’re afraid that you’ll be like that one day?”

 

Sighing, I picked at my nails, trying to tell myself to stop, as I knew it was a habit I did only when I was nervous. “I hope not. But you never know. I always thought that I’d be married with lots of little kids running around my house; a husband to come home and smile at me, someone to have dinner with at night. Someone to be in love with,” I chanced a glance, meeting his eyes as he looked intently at me. Averting my gaze, I looked back towards where my sister was trying to keep her laughter contained, as Sirius took over the cleaning of their cauldron, poking his tongue slightly out of his mouth as he concentrated. I decided to steer the conversation that way instead. “I always thought it would be Alexa that would never settle.”

 

The unfinished ‘but it might be me’ was left hanging in the air. My gaze drifted back to our finished cauldron, and suddenly, I wished there was longer left in detention so the time alone with Remus didn’t have to end. Remus didn’t say anything, and we sat in a relative silence until it became too much. I opened my mouth to speak, another rambling on the horizon, when Remus spoke instead.

 

“I don’t think I’ll ever fall in love, and I don’t think I even want a family.” He said it so quietly that I wasn’t sure it had even happened. My heart soared and fell simultaneously with the news that he wasn’t in love with Andy, but that he never thought he’d want a family either. I reached out to grab his hand, but was interrupted by a loud bang filling the classroom. Everyone in the room turned towards the ruckus, unsurprised when we saw Alexa, her hair slightly singed and Sirius’ eyebrows gone.

 

“What in the name of Godric Gryffindor did you do, Black?” Alexa was fuming, steam pretty much coming out of her ears as she backed away from the cauldron which was somehow steaming again.

 

“Someone you’ve always got to put the blame on me, don’t you Parker? Maybe for once I didn’t do anything; maybe the cauldron exploded on its own. Maybe you should take the stick out of your ass and learn to laugh it off.” Sirius looked rather proud of himself, despite the fact that him having no eyebrows was making him look rather weird.

 

Alexa, however, did not take kindly to this call out, and instead of walking it off, lunged forward, her momentum and the element of surprise causing Sirius to topple over onto the stone floor with a rather loud ‘oof’ as she landed on him, pinning him to the ground and raising her wand to threateningly point at his hair.

 

“I will singe every last bit of this off if you don’t tell me the truth.” Sirius’ eyes widened as Alexa’s eyes burned with fury. He opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted to a rather loud bang as the door to the classroom hit the wall inside. Slughorn walked happily in, munching now on tea cakes, the goblet still sloshing around in his hand. He took in the scene in front of him, rolled his eyes, and waved the hand with the goblet towards the door, mead spilling out onto the floor.

 

“Detention is dismissed.” We all sighed happily, and I urged Alexa away from Sirius, who she was still threatening despite the appearance of a teacher. We were passing out of the doors when we heard Slughorn behind us, “Oh, and Miss Parker, Mr. Black? I’ll expect you back here tomorrow night.”

 

Alexa swung around from where we were walking, pointing at Sirius and then dragging her finger across her throat, green eyes blazing. Sirius barked out a laugh but had the good sense not to respond.

 

I sighed, knowing that things could only go up from here, and hoping as much as we made our way to the Common Room.


	3. Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people! So this chapter is in it's original form until we find the time to do some editing, so bear with us here for just a moment! We're just hoping to get this story out fast and then go back and update the writing soon! Thanks for reading!

_Chapter 3:_

_Alexa's Point of View_

Darkness fell over our shoulder’s as Blair and I descended down to the common room late on Friday night. "Damn!" I spat as I stubbed my toe on a very wooden chair leg. Blair stifled a giggle and I shot her a glare but I smiled to make sure she understood that I was joking. Why were we sneaking down to the Common room so late? Well, we had a reason of course, and what a reason it was. So you see, Lyla came back from prefects meeting tonight with such a smile on her face that we instantly knew that something was up. The thing is that she wouldn’t tell us what she was smiling about. So, instead of pestering her, Blair and I made a secret plan that we were going to find out what was going on, no matter what.  
  
Later, when Lyla snuck out of the dorms, we followed and that’s how we ended up in the common room at around 1:30 in the morning. The problem now is that we don’t know where she ended up at. "What are we going to do, Blair, she could be anywhere in the school?" I sighed and flopped down onto a chair, immediately jumping out of it when I felt something move underneath me. "Who is that?" I whispered frantically while Blair pulled me to the back of the chair.  
  
"I don’t know. What if it’s some kind of crazy person asleep in our common room?" Blair started to ring out her hands and then her face paled considerably. "What if it’s a ghost?" The thing is, Blair is completely afraid of ghosts or anything in the astral world. I smiled slightly and laughed at her.  
  
"It’s obviously not a ghost because it was solid when I landed on it. Plus, I don’t think that it would be a crazy person because we have passwords." I paused when the sleeping figure on the chair sighed. Lowering my voice, I continued speaking. "It has to be one of the people in Gryffindor. And I’m pretty sure that it’s a guy because they had a pretty sturdy build." Together we glanced over the top of the chair’s back and my eyes widened as I realized who exactly was lying on that chair. "Oh, sweet Merlin, Blair. It’s Sirius Black."  
  
I turned to see Blair’s eyes widen dramatically then she hid back behind the chair. "You wake him up, Alex, he might have seen Lyla run out of here." She encouraged and I stared at her blankly. "Well, it’s not like he’s that heavy of a sleeper. One time, James and I snuck up to the dorms and he was asleep. So we thought…" She was about to continue when I clamped a hand over her overactive mouth. She glared at me and her eyes held an evil glint to them.  
  
"No, B, if you lick me I’ll cut your tongue off." The evil glint in her eye was immediately replaced by a slightly apologetic look and I tried to smile. "I don’t particularly want to wake up Sleeping Beauty over here. Do you remember what happened last time we actually spoke." I asked her, trying to convey with my eyes the remembrance of our last detention, which had happened over 5 days ago. Needless to say, these last few days have been trying. Especially since we’ve been hanging around with James, Sirius, and Remus a lot lately. Sigh. I lifted my hand off of Blair’s mouth and she sighed wearily. We proceeded in an intense stare off and then I rolled my eyes. "We’re loosing time. Lyla could be half-way around the world by now!" Sure, I was exaggerating, but what’s the big deal. I really was curious as to where my oldest sister had gone.  
  
Finally, Blair got off the floor and crawled her way around to the front. I peeked around the corner, stifling laughter as I saw B kneeling in front of Sirius and blowing in his face. So this was her big plan to wake him up? It’s never going to work, no one in the world is that light of a sleeper. While Blair blew her lungs out all over Sirius’ face (which I’m sure was not that pleasant), I got up from the place on the floor and walked over to where Sirius’ head was located. Grabbing onto those precious raven locks, I twirled a piece around my finger and pulled. Hard. Like someone had set a fire to him, or pulled his hair in this case, Sirius launched himself into an upright position and put his hand to his head in a desperate attempt to ward off the bad guy. Or girl in this case.  
  
I laughed and noticed with some relief that I hadn’t done anything to his person. "What the bloody hell, Alexa?" Sirius asked sounding hurt, confused, and angry. I shrugged my shoulders and stared into his deep gray eyes. As we watched each other, I had the overwhelming urge to tackle him off his chair and have my way with him. Right here in the common room…….  
  
What the hell?! Where did that come from? I physically shook my head, trying to rid myself of this sudden feeling, and I mentally slapped myself. Focus on the goal here, Alexa, which is not ravaging Black in the Common Room. Gosh, what was wrong with me? Noticing that Blair and Sirius were watching me, I took a step back from the chair and straightened my shirt. Then I cleared my throat and opened my mouth to speak. "I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but we need your help." I said gesturing between Blair and myself. I watched as Sirius seemed to contemplate on the matter and then looked at the both of us.  
  
"I’m intrigued. Please, continue." He waved his hand forward toward the middle of us and Blair immediately elaborated. "Well, so it all starts around dinner when Lyla came back from her prefects meeting. I guess, technically, it would have been dessert, because the meeting was running a little late." Blair paused, and Sirius and I exchanged a glance. "Anyways, she got back all happy and the like, but it’s like she’s on lockdown because she wouldn’t tell us anything. Naturally, we were curious and so we asked her about it. But she wouldn’t answer and just kept blushing and blushing. Then she just hopped on her bed and closed the curtains."  
  
Finished with her mini-speech, Blair smiled happily and before she could start another long, but informative, rendition of what happened next, I stepped over. "So later she just climbed out of her bed, thinking everyone was asleep. But we weren’t so Blair and I followed her. The point to needing your help is that we took to long putting clothes on and the like and so now we’ve gone and lost her." Sirius smiled slyly and looked over to Blair.  
  
"You know about the map." He stated and Blair blushed slightly. I just tried to look like I knew what he was talking about as he stood up from his position and took a step closer to where Blair and I were seated. "I think I can be of service, as long as there’s a payment at the end." He looked straight at me as he said this, and I blushed a very deep shade of raspberry. See, I don’t even get to blush crimson, how dumb is that? "Let me just pop up to the dorms. Ladies." Sirius said as he bowed regally and sauntered towards the stairs. I watched till he was out of sight and then turned to Blair.  
  
Picking at the frayed hole in my jeans, I asked Blair the question I was confused about. "What’s ‘the map?’" Blair smiled and pulled my hand away from messing up my jeans even more. She checked the boy’s stairs before starting her story, making sure that no outsider would understand what was going on. "Well, it’s this map of the school that the Marauders made during their 3rd year here. It’s a map of secret passageways and everything. It’s so freaking cool!" Blair said getting excited with her last few words. I felt my mouth drop in surprise and astonishment. They had a map of the whole school?  
  
"Are you serious? Tell me you aren’t serious." I said while I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that they had a map of everything in and around the school. Blair nodded and I encouraged her to continue. "Details, B, I need details!"  
  
"Okay. Let’s see here, oh, well James told me that they keep the map under lock at all times, unless they’re using it, so that no one steals it. That could potentially be disastrous." While launching into her story, Blair had begun to twirl her golden brown layers that were falling out of her ponytail. "Oh, and James also told me that there must always be a Marauder present if the map is going to be used. So we aren’t breaking any rules with using a Marauder’s secret and that’s always a good thing." We looked at each other and grinned largely as Sirius came pounding back down the boys stairs.  
  
"Everyone ready to go?" Sirius asked and I noticed that he had thrown on some jeans and a t-shirt, plus a jacket. We watched him strangely but he only gathered us towards the couch and sat in the middle of us. Unfolding the map, he pulled his wand out with a flourish. "I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good." I watched him questioningly, not being able to contain my gasp when blood-red lettering began to scroll across the page.  
  
"Messer’s Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs proudly present to you, the Marauder’s Map." I read off in an astonished voice. Then something clicked in my mind. "Moony as in Remus, Wormtail as in…..Peter maybe, Padfoot is you, and Prongs is James!" Sirius looked over to me and grinned widely, showing off his pearly whites. "Blair, look the dots are moving!" Blair gasped and pulled the map out of Sirius’ hands, leaving the boy to huff and pout adorably, and then she flipped a few pages until she reached a section labeled Gryffindor Common Room. I recognized Sirius’ handwriting and then Blair threw the map excitedly.  
  
"Holy Merlin, Black! Those dots were us!" She shrieked and I tumbled off the couch. My head hit the ground with a thump and my vision exploded with stars. "Oh, Alexa, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?" Blair asked as she scrambled off the couch to sit on the ground next to me. I tried to wave her off and mumbled something about being perfectly find, but she persisted. "Sirius get her up, she’s too heavy for me." I huffed at Blair and she smiled sheepishly. Sirius extended his hand towards me and I grabbed it graciously, trying not to notice the fact that it was warm and how much I wished I could hold his hand without him being told to help me.  
  
"Thanks a lot." I mumbled as he let go of my hand and I put my hand back at my side. I watched his mouth form the words, but I never actually heard him say, ‘No problem.’ Well, so much for not being distracted by Sirius Black. Anyways, the next thing I know is that I’m being hauled out of the Common Room and into the hallway following Blair who had taken off with the map. With Sirius towing behind me, I followed closely as Blair lit her wand and took us through a passageway I had never known existed. "I don’t know how you did all of this, Sirius, but this is pretty awesome." I said as we traveled through a dirt tunnel and out of Hogwarts.  
  
"We’re underneath the bookstore in Hogsmeade now." Sirius told us after he had snatched the map away from Blair and we’d been traveling for about 5 minutes. "Come on, we’re almost to the end of the tunnel and then we need to go to the Shrieking Shack. That’s where Lyla’s dot is." I sensed Blair stiffen from behind me and knew she was thinking about the ghosts that ‘haunted’ the Shack. Which was a load of bull because there were no ghosts in that shack. I turned around and caught Blair’s eye, conveying my confusion to her without words. Why would Lyla be at the Shrieking Shack?  
  
"I thought you said the map only went around Hogwarts?" I whispered to Blair while falling into step behind her and still trying to keep an eye on Sirius so we wouldn’t get lost. I felt her shrug beside me and then look up at me. I looked back down at her and blew my hair out of my face with an annoyed expression. Blair laughed and flipped her hair back with ease, making the move fun and laid back while when I did it, I looked like I was having some sort of fit.  
  
"I didn’t know that it went into Hogsmeade, but I guess since it does we should take advantage of it." I nodded along as she continued. "I mean what if there was, for some strange reason, a teacher out here tonight. It’d probably be a good idea to have the map so we know what areas to avoid and what not." She was rambling on as I walked ahead of her, trying to keep up with Sirius who was getting strangely uncomfortable and tense. As I was trying to catch up with him, I hadn’t noticed the fact that he had stopped in front of me, so I ran into the back of him, sending us both sprawling on the floor.  
  
I sat for a moment, trying to gather my bearings and then suddenly realized that this was the second time I had pinned Sirius to the ground in the past few days. While I was mentally applauding myself for the lovely display of powerfulness, I stopped and looked down at Sirius, who was leaning forward on his elbows and studying me with a slightly confused look that mirrored my own. As we stared at each other for the longest moment I have ever experienced, Blair noticed our absence and had called out our names. "Right here." I called back, not enjoying the breathless quality that my voice had taken. Before Blair rounded what must have been a corner, Sirius sat up quickly so I was in his lap and then he hoisted me in the air and to my feet.  
  
We jumped away from each other so quickly that we were standing almost at the opposite walls when Blair came back into view. She took one look between us, rolled her eyes, and lit her wand. "I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s finish it later so we can find Lyla and get out of here. I’m starting to get the creeps." I sighed with relief that she wasn’t going to pester us like most people and I followed her as Sirius led us up a ladder. Blair and I gasped together as we entered what had to be Honeyduke’s cellar. "Crazy cool, how’d you know this was here?" Blair asked at the same time as I exclaimed, "This is amazing!"  
  
Sirius laughed as he took us up the stairs and then into the main part of the store, where the owner glanced at Sirius with a large smile. "Sirius, m’boy, I didn’t expect you back so soon." Sirius colored as the store owner, who was sporting the name tag Chip, smiled knowingly. Exchanging a glance with Blair, I was positive I didn’t want to know who he’d brought with him last time. "But, I didn’t really think you were the kind to…" Chip dragged out and I just now understood what he was implying.  
  
"No!" I shrieked, almost like I was in pain. Not wanting Chip to think I was a tart, or that I like to have threesomes with Black, I tried to fix my original no. "I mean, uh, no that’s not how this is." I corrected myself as Chip, Blair, and Sirius watched me. Finally after standing in silence, Chip smacked his hands together and started to shuffle us out the door.  
  
"Come on, can’t have you all in here too long. I wouldn’t want any of the teachers to drop by unexpectedly and catch me harboring their students." He and Sirius exchanged looks, and I realized that this must have happened before, then Chip switched the OPEN sign to CLOSED and smiled at us. "I’ll leave the back door unlocked so you can get back in. Have a pleasant night!" Blair waved happily as he shut the door and we began to walk down the street. I felt Sirius’ gaze on me, but I didn’t turn around until we were about halfway to the shack. His gaze still hadn’t strayed completely, going from me to the map, and as Blair rambled on endlessly, I turned my stare on him.  
  
"What are you staring at?" I somewhat shouted (which I seemed to be doing a lot today,) as I cut Blair off in mid-ramble and Sirius raised an eyebrow on me. "I’d really like to know what you find so interesting that you’ve had to stare at my back for the past few blocks." The other eyebrow had risen as I had explained and now Blair had just rolled her eyes and walked away, up towards the Shrieking Shack by herself. With just Sirius and I on the path, I felt some kind of anticipation building up inside me. I couldn’t explain what it was, but it was starting to get on my last nerve. Sirius shrugged his shoulders quickly and then his eyes lit up.   
  
I could have sworn that I saw a light bulb light up above his head, but I could never be exactly sure. I wouldn’t put it past him to not pull something like that though. Anyways, walking closer to me, Sirius lowered his voice to what I’m sure he thought was a seductive voice. Not that it wasn’t or anything, I just didn’t want him to know that. As I thought about what he could do with that voice, my face reddened. "Maybe I just like to admire your backside. Did you ever think of that?" It was my turn to shrug as he continued to walk closer to me. When my back hit a tree, I knew I was cornered and that I should run while I still could. Unfortunately, my legs were like lead and I couldn’t move even if I had wanted too.  
  
"Shouldn’t we be looking for Lyla?" I asked feebly, trying to get out of the whole that I had buried myself in because I had let him get this close to me. Why couldn’t I just have a good time with Sirius without having to get into some sort of fight with him, or have something like this happen? Was in inevitable for us to always cross paths like this or was it just fate stepping in? I decided that I didn’t like either of those options and that I would kindly forget about that. Sirius laughed quietly as he put both hands over my shoulders and on the tree trunk, locking me in place but never actually touching me.  
  
"Oh, she’s with Remus so it’s not like she’s in any danger. I predict that Blair will just walk in on them talking or something and then come back to look for us." I wondered what the ‘or something’ could be and then flushed. I really hoped Lyla was having a good time, either way that is. My breathing became a bit spastic as Sirius leaned in so his face was only about 3 inches away from mine and my heartbeat sped up. "Now, I’d like for you to answer a question for me. Why are you so opposed to being my date? You practically blanched at the idea when Chip said something."  
  
Was it just me or did he sound slightly…upset? "I- Well, it’s not really the thought ---- I just don’t know," I stammered and then closed my eyes to set the words straight in my mind. I kept my eyes closed as I talked so I wouldn’t have to gaze into his piercing gray eyes that were practically throwing heat out. "I can’t be the kind of girl who just puts out for someone they aren’t going to be in a relationship with. That’s just not who I am, so it’s not really you, but the potential for disaster that comes with being with you." I heaved a deep breath, but didn’t open my eyes. Listening for the sound of Sirius moving away, getting angry or something, I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt his hand under my chin.  
  
I opened my eyes to stare straight into those smoldering gray irises and I was surprised to see the smile on his handsome face. "I never said I wanted you to ’put out’, Lexie. I just want one," he leaned in, the smell of his skin intoxicating me, "Itty-bitty," He tilted my chin up higher, bringing his lips so close to mine, "kiss." Before he could completely get the word out, I had brought my lips up to meet his, not being able to contain what I had been feeling all night. He seemed surprised at first, but that didn’t stop him from responding with what I’m sad to say, but not that terribly sad, was a practiced ease.  
  
Plunging my hand into his silky hair, that I had pulled earlier tonight (how long ago that felt), I brought my other hand up around his neck. He moved his lips teasingly as he backed me further into the tree, leaving no room for anything between us. Not even a breath of air. I wish I could say it was a branch poking into my back that made me arch, but when Sirius brushed his long fingers over my spine, I had forgotten all pretenses about pretending to not stand the boy.  
  
As he skirted his tongue around the top and bottom of my lips, the corners, and everywhere except my actual mouth, I lost my patience and wrapped my right leg around his lean waist. If I had surprised him, he didn’t show it but he did snake his tongue into my mouth finally and my breath hitched. I felt that hand that wasn’t wrapped in my hair slide over my arse and down the leg that wasn’t currently wrapped around him. Then, the next thing I know, my left leg’s being lifted around him and I’m being supported my the tree and his arms only.  
  
Before my lungs collapsed from lack of oxygen, Sirius had removed his lips and then kissing me once, twice, three times. He attacked my throat and I laughed slightly, once again burying my hands in his hair. As I played with the hair at the base of his neck he wrapped his arms tighter around me and moved on to my collar bone, which was slightly visible by my t-shirt. While I brought his lips back up to mine in a kiss that should have been illegal and may have been, Sirius had ran his hands around to my stomach and was slowly pushing the pads of his fingers and his palm into my sides. Underneath my t-shirt. And the funny thing was, I continued to let him until I heard myself moan.  
  
Ripping our lips apart, we looked at each other with wide eyes and then I saw Blair, Lyla, and Remus over his shoulder. As I tried to get my breathing back under control, I realized how bad our situation suddenly looked. My hair had fallen out of its ponytail, my legs were locked around Sirius’ waist, his hands were up my t-shirt (which was almost over my head), and I had a trail of reddish marks traveling down my neck. Sirius looked somewhat better, but his hair was in a disarray and his lips were badly swollen from where I may have bitten him. Not knowing if Sirius knew we had an audience, I pushed his hands off my body and rolled my shirt back down. With his help I got my legs to unwrap and got shakily back to the ground and real life.  
  
"Well, that was unexpected." I heard Remus say and I felt tears spring to my eyes. What had I just done? Taking one last look at Sirius, who looked at me somewhat guiltily, I took off running down the street. I knew I was fleeing like a baby, and I was 16 years old, but right now I really wanted my mommy. I heard shouts from behind me, and then feet pounding on the dirt path, then yelling (by Lyla to Sirius, it seemed), and I was being grabbed from behind. Curse Blair and for her playing softball in the summer!  
  
"Alex, slow down and let’s wait for Lyla. We’ll sort this out because it seems like you and Lyla were both productive tonight." I glanced at Blair shyly, not wanting her to think of me badly, and she smiled slyly. So Remus and Lyla must have been doing that ’or something’ Sirius had mentioned. Well, no one liked Andy Ablo anyways. Lyla came sprinting down the stairs and once again, I envied the fact that she had played soccer all summer and was so fast. Note to self: Join a club or at least do some exercising this year.  
  
"I think we both have a lot of explaining to do." Lyla said as she smiled at me, letting me know that what I had done wasn’t some big crime like I thought it was. I tried to smile back at her and noticed that I could smile now without having to have them think I was some kind of bad guy. Blair clapped her hands together and we all three locked arms, falling into step with each other and matching our steps perfectly, the way friends do when they’ve known each other forever. I sighed while I tried to calm myself down. I was still so riled up from Sirius. What was I, infatuated with him? I couldn’t be. I sighed once more while Blair and Lyla sighed with me.  
  
"It would seem we do, Lucy." 


	4. Sweet Side Brunch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people! So this chapter is in it's original form until we find the time to do some editing, so bear with us here for just a moment! We're just hoping to get this story out fast and then go back and update the writing soon! Thanks for reading!

_Chapter 4:_   
  


_Lyla's Point of View_

 

“Come on, Lyla! This is clearly a big, freaking deal!” Alexa called as she chased me down the hallway. We were finally back to the castle, without running into any teachers (thank Merlin!), and I really didn’t want to talk about what had just gone on in the Shrieking Shack. So, it had all went down hill after Remus had kissed me. Yup, I was not the one who initiated all of this, but I didn’t stop it either. I felt bad for Blair who had to come in while we were snogging, although, she seemed to be taking everything okay. Then again, it is Blair and she doesn’t really take heart to any of the things that happen to her. Lucky girl. Even though she seemed to let it go, my adoring sister definitely did not.  
  
I whipped around to face her and she took a step back. I guess I looked really angry, I’ll try to tone it down. “What about you and Sirius? That was clearly a big deal too.” Alexa shut her mouth and we glared at each other, but I wasn’t finished. “Do you want to explain why you were wrapped around him like some kind of, of, woman of the night?” I was practically shouting at this point. Alexa and Blair looked a wee bit shocked at the fact that I was blowing up like a bomb right in front of them. This definitely was knew for me; I generally wasn’t an angry person. I just continued to glare at my dear sister, waiting for her to answer.  
  
“Um, well, that is completely not relevant. Don’t try to change the subject, I want answers and I want them now,” Alexa stammered, quickly trying to change the subject herself. I could see in her eyes that she knew damn well that I was not going to just forget that I found my sister passionately wrapped around the Play Boy of Hogwarts. That image was unfortunately burned into my mind forever. I don’t know if I would be able to ever sleep again. However, I knew that she was just as stubborn as I was, and that she wouldn’t stop bugging me about what happened in the Shrieking Shack until I told her. So, I decided to use my bargaining skills.  
  
“Okay, here’s the deal. I will tell you everything that happened between Remus and I, in exchange for all the details about your rendezvous with Sirius. Deal?” I looked at Alexa, who was mulling over my proposal. I could tell she was thinking hard, because whenever she thinks extremely hard about something her forehead crinkles and she bites her lower lip. I’m not going to lie, I kind of hoped that she would decline my offer, because I really didn’t want to explain my eventful evening. “Deal,” Alexa finally said after careful consideration.  
  
By this time we had made it back to the common room. We crept silently through the portrait hole and looked around the deserted common room. I settled onto a couch near the fireplace and Blair and Alexa eagerly followed and sat around me on the floor. They were looking at me like little kids waiting for me to begin story time or something.  
  
“Okay, spill all the details,” Alexa said.  
  
“Well, I got into bed, as you know, and I was just laying there trying to fall asleep. After ten or fifteen minutes, I was nearly asleep, when I felt someone shaking me. I thought it was one of you guys playing a joke on me, but when I looked around the room you and Blair asleep in your beds and no one around me. I just figured I was dreaming the whole thing. I laid back down and then I heard some one say, ‘Lyla’, I shot up and again I saw no one.” Blair and Alexa were shaking their heads telling me to continue.  
  
I took a deep breath and continued my little tale, “By now, I was a little freaked out, so I asked who was there. And then, out of nowhere, Remus appeared out of thin air.” Alexa’s eyes widened.  
  
“Wait, how did he just appear? We aren’t allowed to apparate inside the school. We haven’t even learned how to apparate yet,” Alexa inquired.  
  
“He had an invisibility cloak,” I told them.  
  
“No way!” Blair said excitedly. “How did he get it?” Alexa asked with a curious look on her face.  
  
“He said that he borrowed it from someone. I would have bugged him to find out who he got it from, but I never really got the chance. He grabbed me and put the invisibility cloak over both of us. He told me to be quiet and to stay close to him. I asked where we were going, but all he said was, ‘Trust me and stay quiet.’ So I followed him and kept my mouth shut.”  
  
“Wow, that’s crazy,” Alexa said. “That does not sound like Remus at all. I can’t believe that he would traipse around the school grounds at night.”  
  
“I can’t believe you went with him. You could have gotten in trouble for being out of bed, at night, with a boy. Personally, I am so…,” I was ready to be ridiculed by Blair. I couldn’t believe I had done it either. “… proud of you! Our little Lyla is all grown up! I mean, that is something I would do,” Blair said laughing. I began to laugh along with her. I looked over at Alexa who was trying to suppress her laughter. “Okay, enough kidding around, get to the dirty details,” she said nudging me.  
  
“Well, I couldn’t really see much, so I had no idea where we were going. Then he finally removed the cloak I was amazed at where we were. We were in the Shrieking Shack.” I replayed the rest of the evening in my head as I told them.  
  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
  
Remus removed the invisibility cloak and dust flew up all around us. I looked around to find that Remus had dragged me out of bed and led me to the Shrieking Shack. I looked up at Remus who had a slight smirk on his face. There was complete silence, other than the sound of my heart beating fast as I looked deep into Remus’ big beautiful eyes. When I finally escaped from the trance I was in, I said, “Remus, what are we doing here?”  
  
Without saying anything, Remus turned around and walked slowly to a window with dirty panes. He stopped at the window and looked out them meaningfully; he was so cute when he was deep in thought. I followed him to the window and put my hand on his shoulder to turn him towards me. He turned to me and took a deep breath. “Lyla, I have something to tell you, something that has been eating me away inside. I brought you here to tell you this thing.”  
  
“Well, what is it? You can tell me anything,” I said encouragingly.  
  
“I know I can tell you anything, and I want to tell you so bad. The only problem is…I don’t know how to tell you,” he said kicking his shoes against the floor. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I so desperately wanted to tell him that I liked him, maybe even loved him, but I didn’t want to be responsible for breaking him and Andy up. He finally looked up from his shoes and looked me straight in the face. “I think I love you.”  
  
My mouth dropped. I couldn’t believe what I just heard. My mind just went completely blank. “Remus I…”  
  
“Look, I know that this is sudden and that I have a girlfriend, but I couldn’t keep this inside me any longer.  
  
I understand that you probably don’t feel the same way, but at least now you know,” he started to walk towards the door. I wanted to go after but I just stood there like a fool. I couldn’t move. I wanted to, but it was like someone had glued my feet to the floor.  
  
I finally moved, and turned to go after Remus. I grabbed his hand. He turned to me looking at his feet. I lifted his face so he was looking at me. “You didn’t let me finish. I love you too.” He bent down and kissed me so gently on my lips. I kissed him back passionately, screw Andy Ablo. He put his hands around my face and neck. I wrapped my fingers through his hair. He started to walk towards me so I started backing up. Where luck would have it, I tripped over a loose floor board and went flying onto the floor, pulling Remus down with me. We both landed on the floor with a thud. I looked at him with an apologetic smile and I mouthed the word sorry. He just started laughing.  
  
I grabbed him and rolled over on top of him and began to kiss him yet again. His hands were caressing my back. He slowly began to lift up my shirt. I let out a little giggle. Then there was a shadow that I noticed and then there was a cough. Remus and I looked up towards the door to find Blair standing in the door frame with her arms crossed tapping her foot. I leapt up immediately, pulled my shirt down and then helped Remus up. Blair stepped aside and Remus and I left the room like two little children who had just been caught drawing on the walls with crayons.  
  
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo  
  
“And, well you know the rest,” I concluded, a little out of breath. I looked at Blair who had a smile on her face and then I looked to my sister who looked less than happy.  
  
“You little hussy! I’m so proud!” Blair screamed at me, giving me a hug so big that it knocked me over. When she released me from her firm grasp I turned to Alexa and said, “Alexa, are you mad at me?”  
  
She stared at me with a stern look on her face. Then, she finally cracked a smile and responded, “No, I’m not mad, just a little shocked. I can’t believe you did that, especially since Remus already has a girlfriend. You know what this means, don’t you?” Blair and I looked at her, inquiring to what she was talking about. “You’re the other woman!” she said busting out laughing. Blair and I looked at each other and joined in.  
  
After our exciting night, we were all exhausted. We headed up to our dormitories and passed out on our beds. When I finally woke up, the sun was brightly shining through the open windows warming my rested face. I rolled over on my side to see if Alexa was still asleep but her bed, as well as Blair’s, was empty. In fact, there was nobody in the dormitories. I looked at my clock to discover it was 11 o’clock. I couldn’t believe I had slept so late, someone had turned off my alarm, and I bet I know who did it. I stretched out of bed, pulled on my jeans and a shirt, and headed down to the common room. In the common room sat four familiar bodies: Alexa, Blair, James, and Remus.  
  
“Good morning Sleeping Beauty!” Alexa said with a huge smile on her face. “How was your extended sleep?”  
  
A smile crept onto my face, “It was good,” I went to the couch she was sitting on and sat next to her giving her a huge hug. “Thanks for turning off my alarm.”  
  
She returned my hug and then pushed me off of her saying, “Yeah, yeah. Can we go get some food now? I am so freaking hungry, and Remus made us all wait for you.” I looked at Remus who gave me a sweet smile. We all got up and followed Alexa, who was already half-way out of the portrait hole. As we walked down to the Great Hall, Alexa turned to Remus, “Hey Remus, umm, do you happen to know where, umm, Sirius is?” Remus looked at her with a comical smile on his face. “I mean, I don’t care or anything. Umm, someone else was looking for him. Yes, that’s it!”  
  
Remus just laughed and responded, “Well, I think he is already in the Great Hall.” Alexa smiled and walked away dragging me along with her. When we got to the Great Hall we immediately found Sirius sitting at a table reading the Daily Prophet with a full plate of eggs, toast, and bacon that sat untouched in front of him. He looked different. He almost even looked like he was thinking. Nah, that couldn’t be right, maybe he just had gas or something. Sitting next to him was Bree. She was playing with Sirius’ hair and giggling as he read his paper. Sirius looked up from his paper and turned to Bree and whispered something to her. She whispered something back and then got up and walked towards us.  
  
“Hey guys,” She said waving at us. “I have to go now, but maybe I’ll see you later,” She walked past us out of the Great Hall.  
  
“Oh, bitch please,” I heard Alexa whisper under her breath. That was weird. We hadn’t seen Bree since the beginning of school; it was like she just disappeared. She said that she was just to busy with school work to hang out. None of us really thought much about it because she was always studying. I looked over to Alex whose eyes were filled with fire. I touched her on the shoulder and gave her a smile. I knew she was mad that Bree seemed to be moving in on Sirius but she managed to crack a smile back at me.  
  
We all sat down around him and he didn’t even notice that we had sat down. Alexa, who was sitting next to him, worked up the courage to talk to him, “Hey, Sirius, are you okay?”  
  
Sirius raised his head and looked around the table, he seemed okay until he saw Alexa sitting next to him. He jumped up and tripped trying to get over the bench really fast. He fell flat on his face and everyone in the Great Hall was watching intently trying to surpass their laughter. Sirius flew up off the ground, acting like he hadn’t just face planted, and power walked out of the Great Hall.  
  
We all were speechless and didn’t move, except for James who reached across the table and grabbed Sirius’ full plate and immediately started inhaling the food. Blair started laughing and we all joined in. James looked up with food falling out of his mouth, “Whu?” James asked, spewing food on the table. We just continued laughing. After breakfast we went back up to our Common Room to study and finish the killer essay that had been assigned to us by McGonagall. Trust me, that essay was hard!  
  
“Lyla, why have you been in the bathroom for the past hour? Other people have to use the bathroom too, and a line is starting to form. Could you hurry…?” Before she could finish her sentence I threw open the door. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize people were waiting, so sorry,” I said looking apologetically at a fifth year that was first in line.  
  
“Lyla! You look hot! What’s the occasion?” Blair asked jumping off of her bed and playing with my hair.  
  
“Well, I have Prefect duties tonight,” I said swatting her hand away from my face as she tried to style my hair.  
  
Alexa flopped on her bed and reached for an open package of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans and popped a few in her mouth. “What does that matter? You always have Prefect duties. What makes this time any different…?” I smiled as I thought of Remus. She must have realized by the look on my face. “Oh, right, Remus.”  
  
“Shh. Stop, it’s not that big of a deal.” I said  
  
“OH, REMUS!” Blair and Alexa screamed in unison while they twirled around me.  
  
I tackled them to the floor and covered their mouths and looked around to make sure no one else was there. “Seriously, be quiet. You guys can’t say anything about Remus and me. I’m the other woman, remember?”  
  
“Oh right. Well, have a wonderful night.” Blair said winking at me.  
  
“I will; and try not to get into too much trouble while I’m gone,” I said while laughing. Blair and Alexa smiled at me menacingly and waved as I walked down the stairs to meet the other Gryffindor Prefects. I met Lily half-way down the stairs to the common room and was slightly surprised to see that she didn’t have anything too horrible to say to me. As we reached the portrait hole in a stony silence, Remus entered the room looking tired and somewhat upset. While I tried not to go over and wrap him in a comforting hug, Lily stepped briskly between us and started to speak. “We’ll meet the Ravenclaw prefects in the Great Hall and then, since there are three of us this year,” She sent a scathing glare at me and I smiled serenely, “We will probably have to split up into groups. Let’s go.”  
  
She strode from the Common Room like she was the hottest thing since the sun and I rolled my eyes as I followed her. We were halfway to the Great Hall when we heard movement from behind us and someone shouted Remus’ name. “Hey! Remus! Moony! Wait up!” I turned around to see the tell-tale black hair of Sirius Black running towards Remus. He looked a little worse for the wear, but I didn’t say anything as he took Remus aside. Watching Remus’ face, I noticed that he was looking more worried as Sirius’ face became more animated. As Remus shook his head no and Sirius furrowed his brow, I had a strange feeling that something bad was going to happen.  
  
Remus shook his head and spoke something in reply to Sirius. I tried to make out the words that they were saying, but I was never much of a lip reader. Sirius sped down the corridor and Remus returned to our group. “What was that all about?” I asked.  
  
“Oh, nothing, Sirius is just being Sirius,” Remus still looked worried. I knew there was something that he wasn’t telling me.  
  
When we finally made it to the Great Hall, Lily informed us to circle around her to receive our assignments. Remus and I positioned ourselves next to Lily. “Okay people, listen up,” Lily boomed over the chattering of the other prefects. She sweetly smiled at everyone, “Tonight, we will be splitting up into pairs. The first pair will be…” While Lily raddled off her list of pairs and their assignments, I was busy staring at Remus. I did that a lot lately; I think I have a disease. “And Lyla will be with Remus. You two will be patrolling the fifth floor. Alright people, let’s get to work. Off you go now.”  
  
Remus and I headed up to the fifth floor, just the two of us. As we walked down the deserted corridor, I felt something grab my hand. I looked down at my hand to find that Remus had grabbed my hand. I looked up at him shyly smiling at me. I intertwined my fingers with his and I felt butterflies swell up inside me. This was the first time that Remus and I had spent time alone with each other since our little escapade in the Shrieking Shack. It kind of sucked that I couldn’t spend time with the person that basically confessed his love to me, but that was my price I had to pay for being the other woman.  
  
We were getting ready to round a corner when Remus suddenly stopped and I was jerked backwards. “What’s wrong Remus?” I asked.  
  
A huge mischievous smile spread rapidly across Remus’ face. He leaned in a little, as if to whisper, and said, “You want to have a little fun?” He was holding both of my hands now.  
  
“What kind of fun?” I asked, curious as to what he had in mind.  
  
Remus took my chin in his hand and raised it. He leaned down and kissed me on my neck and slowly moved across my jaw finally ending with a gentle kiss on my lips. “Does that give you a hint?”  
  
With a goofy smile on my face, I shook my head because I could put together a coherent sentence in my mind.  
  
“Follow me,” He released one of my hands and pulled me behind him by the other. When we finally stopped, I had no idea where we were. It was almost completely dark and Remus turned to me smiling.  
  
“Remus, where are we?” Remus pulled his wand out of his pocket and turned towards the wall to the right of us. “Lumos,” he whispered. A light shot out of his wand, and in front of us was a portrait. He muttered something and the portrait popped open slightly. “What is this I asked?”  
  
“This,” he said, “Is one of the many shortcuts that James, Sirius, and I have discovered,” he said grasping the door with one hand. He opened the portrait all the way and helped me into a dark corridor. He followed behind me and pulled the portrait door closed. At the moment Remus shut the door, I heard something down the corridor.  
  
I grabbed Remus by his arm and whispered very softly, “Remus, what is that?” Remus shrugged his shoulders and started to walk slowly towards the noise. I held onto his arm as tight as I could. “What if it’s something bad?” I asked. Remus looked at me and put his finger up to his mouth telling me to be quiet. I shook my head in agreement. “But Remus, what if…,” he cut me off with a stern look. I mouthed the word sorry, not daring to speak again.  
  
The noise was getting closer and louder. It now seemed that we were standing about ten feet away. Remus looked at me and I looked at him. He slowly reached for his wand, I grabbed for mine as well. He stretched out his arm and whispered so quietly, “Lumos.” When the light appeared, I found neither a monstrous creature nor a dark magical being. However, I did find something terrible, not to mention a little disturbing. When that light appeared, I found Bree snogging someone on the floor.  
  
“Bree!” I shouted.  
  
“Um, hey Lyla,” Bree shamefully replied. When Bree got up off the floor, it revealed her mystery snogging partner. When this mystery man came into the light, it was none other than Sirius Black. I immediately filled up with rage.  
  
“Sirius Black!” How dare he snog my sister, blow her off, and then go and snog someone who I thought was our friend. I was furious to say the least. He has no idea what he just unleashed. You don’t mess with the Parker sisters.  
  
“Oh Lyla, Moony; fancy seeing you here. I don’t even want to know what you two have been up to,” Sirius said with no trace of remorse in his voice.  
  
“Hey Padfoot. I didn’t think you would come here. I told you this was a bad idea,” I couldn’t believe all of this.  
  
“Remus, you knew about all of this, and you didn’t stop him! How could you not tell me about this,” I was looking furious at Remus.  
  
“Look Lyla, you shouldn’t blame Moony; it is all my fault. I made him swear not to tell you anything,” he said in a tone that tried to make it seem that everything was okay. Oh, but everything was far from okay.  
  
“Sirius Black you are such a prat! How dare you do something like this; when you know, quite well, how Alexa feels about you. And after what happened between you two, it seemed that you felt the same way too,” I spat at him.  
  
“Lyla, I wish I could explain all of that, but unfortunately I can’t so, I will just take Bree back to her dormitory and maybe we can discuss this at a better time,” Sirius said grabbing Bree and heading towards the other end of the corridor.  
  
I had almost forgot that Bree was also involved. Bree has always been one of our good friends; and I just couldn’t believe she would do something like this. Sure, she hadn’t been around much this year and she had been acting a wee bit strange, but I would have never thought she would go behind Alexa’s back and do this. I would have loved to lay into the both, but before I knew it they were gone, and once again, Remus and I were alone; and my head was throbbing. “Remus, my head is spinning and I don’t even know how I am going to tell Alexa about this. Let’s just go back to the dorms, please,” I said rubbing my temples with my index fingers.  
  
“Of course, but Lyla, are you sure you should tell Alexa? I mean, you don’t know the whole story; maybe you should give Sirius a chance to explain,” he said leading me out of the secret shortcut corridor.  
  
“I have to tell her; she would hate me if she ever found out that I kept this from her. On the other hand, it could really hurt her if I tell her. I just don’t know what to do,” I stopped and sat down against a wall. “Why does Sirius have to be such an ass?” I asked him.  
  
To my surprise, Remus started laughing. “He can’t help it; it’s just who he is. Sirius doesn’t really know how to act when he has something good going for him; like your sister. Just wait at least until tomorrow, if you decide to tell her,” Remus always knew what to say to make me feel better. He helped me up and we walked in silence back to the common room.  
  
When I entered into the common room, to my displeasure, Alexa had waited up for me and was sitting on a couch starring at the fire place. I hadn’t yet decided if I wanted to tell her yet, but I would take Remus’ advice and wait till tomorrow. I walked over to the couch and plopped down on it letting out a big sigh. “Rough day at work today honey?” she laughed.  
  
I couldn’t help but laugh, “Yeah, terrible,” Alexa looked at me in a way indicating that she wanted me to go on. “Just some kids giving us a hard time.”  
  
“Kids these days,” she said with a sarcastic tone and smile. We both laughed. I soon was overcome with tiredness; so Alexa and I both headed up to our dormitory to sleep. My mind was so busy trying to process the whole night that it was hard to fall asleep; but finally my mind couldn’t take any more. I finally fell into a deep sleep.  
  
When I woke up, the sun had barely come up and no one was awake. I knew that I had a tough day ahead of me. I had to decide if I was going to tell Alexa about Sirius and I had to at least give Sirius a chance to explain himself. I hopped in the shower and took my time washing my hair. When I got out, most everyone had awakened and gone to breakfast. Blair and Alexa were among the few who were still sleeping.  
  
I put on some clothes and headed down to the common room to read. When I walked into the common room, to my surprise, Remus was sitting there. When I saw him, I remembered how I yelled at him last night. I felt so stupid and embarrassed. “Hey Remus, what are you doing up here; why aren’t you at breakfast?” I hesitantly asked.  
  
“Well, I could ask you the same thing,” he said patting the seat next to him, beckoning me to sit down.  
  
I sat down next to him, “Well, I was hoping that I could talk to Sirius before Alexa woke up. Do you know where he is?” I asked smiling at him.  
  
“He’s not awake yet. If you want, you can just go up and wait for him; most everyone is gone to breakfast anyway,” he told me.  
  
“Okay, I think I’ll do that. Hey, um, I’m sorry for getting mad at you last night. I was just really upset,” I said looking down at my twiddling thumbs.  
  
“Don’t worry about it. I completely understand,” he said getting up and walking towards the portrait hole. “Good luck,” he said giving me a sweet smile.  
  
“Thanks,” I said as he turned and left the common room. I went up to the boy’s dormitory and saw that Sirius was the only boy sleeping in the dormitory. I went and sat on his trunk that was at the foot of his bed. I waited for a few minutes, but got quite bored, so I decided to wake him up. “Sirius,” I whispered, “Sirius,” I said a little louder. Man, he was a heavy sleeper. “Sirius!” I yelled. Sirius immediately shot up and looked around with his eyes half closed.  
  
“What? What’s going on?” he asked groggily.  
  
He finally saw me sitting on his trunk. “Morning sunshine,” I said with a bright smile on my face.  
  
“What are you doing in here at this ungodly hour?” he asked, sitting up in his bed and rubbing his eyes.  
  
“Sirius, it’s not that early,” I told him. “I am here to give you a chance to explain what happened last night.” Sirius let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes again. I could tell he was hoping that I wouldn’t bring that up. “All I want to know is why you did it. Why you snogged my sister and then avoided her because you were snogging her friend. Just tell me why.”  
  
“I wasn’t avoiding her because of that,” I looked at him encouraging him to go on, “I was avoiding her because…,” he stopped and looked down.  
  
“Sirius, why were you avoiding her if it wasn’t because of Bree then?” I asked  
  
“I was avoiding her because I don’ want to hurt her. You might not believe me, but I do care about Alexa; and I don’t want to do anything to harm her. I always screw relationships up and I don’t want Alexa to be just another girl,” he paused. I had never seen this side of Sirius; I didn’t even know it was possible for Sirius to have this kind of side. “So to not risk hurting her, I decided to just stay away.”  
  
“Sirius, Alexa really likes you. You’re hurting her more by staying away. Even though you’re kind of a complete play boy,” I said, both of us laughing, “You’re the one she wants, and I’m pretty sure you feel the same way,” Sirius nodded his head. “I know that a stable relationship is a new thing for you; but change is good. It’s okay for you to be happy,” I said getting up and going towards the door to leave. “Give this a chance, okay?” He nodded his head again. I gave him a smile and then headed down to the common room.  
  
When Blair and Alexa finally woke up, we headed down to the Great Hall to join Remus and James for breakfast. When we sat down at the table, Remus had already finished eating and James, I’m sure, was on his third or fourth plate. When we started eating, I noticed Sirius walking towards us. He came up to our table and sat right next to Alexa, “Hey,” he said smiling at her. Alexa’s eyes lit up and returned his smile.  
  
James had nearly finished his plate when a second year walked by. James turned and grabbed the second year by his shirt, “I would like another side of toast, run along.” As the second year scurried away, we all started to laugh. When I looked across the table at Blair, I noticed Bree with a sour look on her face, looking at Sirius and Alexa talking. She got up and stormed out of the room. Sounds more like a side of tense. 


	5. The Grass is Always Greener

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people! So this chapter is in it's original form until we find the time to do some editing, so bear with us here for just a moment! We're just hoping to get this story out fast and then go back and update the writing soon! Thanks for reading!

_Chapter 5:_

_Alexa's Point of View_

 

“Alexa, I think that we should have a talk,” I peered up at the speaker through my curly hair as I picked my head up from the desk I had been previously working on. It was Bree and I smiled at her, motioning for her to sit down. See that was the thing; I forgive very easily and Bree had been my friend since first year so I was okay to let this one fly. She sat down primly in the chair and shook her long, straight, brown hair over her shoulders. We stared at each other for a moment and when she didn’t speak, I looked back to my essay and my text book that lay open on my desk. Oh the wonders of Skrewt mating!  
  
Bree coughed politely and I rolled my eyes as I held up one finger to symbolize I wanted to finish writing my last sentence of this forsaken essay. I was still about half an inch short, so I signed my name with an extra flourish and then set my quill down and looked back up.  
  
Oh.  
  
She looked angry. Like, I’m going to punch a baby angry. Pulling my hair back into its hair tie, I focused all my attention on Bree. “Alright, shoot, Bree. What’s wrong? You’re not pregnant are you?” I was kidding with her but the way her face tightened had me choking on air. “Oh my gosh! Sweet Merlin, you aren’t right?”  
  
Bree scoffed. “Of course I’m not, Alex. You know me better than that,” She bore into my eyes with her stare and I was becoming slightly freaked out. “We need to talk about a current situation that is taking place between us.” She spoke as if she was about to make some grand speech and I felt my eyes glazing over slightly while I tried to keep my focus. In the state of mind she was in now, which was a serious one, my short attention span was not going to help whatever case I was going to have to play. I hoped that I wasn’t going to be the guilty one.  
  
See, the thing with Bree and I is that we like to fight. A lot. Most of the time the fights are over trivial things; just like who stole who’s hair brush, is that really your tie or is it mine, etc. They were dumb and we knew it but something about our genetic makeup just had us fighting all the time. I really didn’t want to fight with her. Truly, she was one of my best friends and I would be crushed if we ever had a fight. It’s just that when you’re with people all the time you can only take so much. So it wasn’t like we weren’t friends. We simply just got on each other’s nerves and fought.  
  
The weirdest part about it was that I always ended up as the guilty one. No matter if it was my tie she was wearing and I hadn’t taken anything from her, she always made me feel bad about what had happened. It was a game that she knew all the rules to, while I was sitting on the bench trying to find the manual. I could tell that this was the game that we were going to be playing today as well and I tried to steal myself for it. When she didn’t speak and explain the ‘situation’ between us I sighed and held my head in one hand.  
  
As I was opening my mouth to speak, the door to the library opened and Bree peeked over her shoulder. She glared angrily at the two black haired boys that were entering the entrance before turning her back to me and mouthing something to Sirius and James. Whatever it was they stalled for a moment, looking unsure of themselves. Only for a moment though, they were the marauders after all. She rolled her eyes as she turned back around to face me, waiting for me to speak. “Alright, Bree, I’ll bite. What situation do we need to talk about?” She smiled semi-maliciously at me and I tilted my head slightly to watch her. While she glanced once more over her shoulder to see if the boys were making their way towards us, I tried not to roll my eyes. Couldn’t this ever be simple?  
  
“The situation is about the fact that you may or may not have developed a small crush on one-fourth of the Marauders.” My eyes widened and straightened up in my chair, giving myself slight whiplash as I looked around to make sure no one had heard her. With my hand over Bree’s mouth to stop her from saying anything else, I whispered almost so quietly that I could barely hear myself.  
  
“Bree! Shut your mouth for just a minute, okay?” She glared angrily at me while I removed my hand and sat back in my seat, raising my voice to a regular whisper once again. “I really don’t want everyone to know.” I lowered my head to stare at the desk. See, there she goes again! She hasn’t even said anything but I feel as if I should be sorry for snapping at her. Maybe I had overreacted. But then again, maybe I hadn’t.  
  
Bree tossed her hair over her shoulder, and once again, gave me a disparaging look. “Whatever, Alex, this is clearly something that needs to be spoken about. Your crush is just a little school-girlish and I don’t want you to be hurt if he suddenly ends up with another, more mature girl.” I watched as Bree looked over her shoulder and caught Sirius’ eye. She motioned for him to come over and he looked to James and started this way. All the while, my heart was racing in my chest.  
  
“Bree, does Sirius already have a girlfriend? And my crush isn’t even a crush exactly. I don’t even think I like him that way.” I was about to tick off a list of the things about Sirius that I didn’t like, but it was too late. He was already sitting down beside Bree and was looking at us curiously. “Hi Sirius,” I tried to remain calm as I spoke to Sirius and not let my voice waver. He didn’t need to know that his prescence affected my that much. Bree said a coy hello and I swear that she winked. Sirius flirted back and it was suddenly like I wasn’t even there at all. My palms began to itch and my face flushed. So, this is what she was talking about when she said another girl. Granted, I didn’t think she was that mature, but I wasn’t in a position to argue was I?  
  
As I started to gather up my things, Bree looked up from giving Sirius what she liked to call her ‘bedroom’ eyes. “Where are you going, Alexa? We haven’t even begun to talk this over yet,” She sent me a devil like smile as I felt like I was being stabbed in the back. Sirius looked from my troubled face to Bree’s triumphant one and seemed to gauge the situation. “Are you two fighting over me?” He asked while looking back and forth between us.  
  
“We’re not fighting over anything.” I said through gritted teeth and Sirius’ expression turned into a smug smirk. “I’m just leaving because I’m done,” Looking at Bree when I said this I hoped that she understood my double meaning. I was upset that she thought our friendship was just a way to manipulate me and I wasn’t going to sit around and be one of her pawns anymore. Suddenly, I realized that I was really angry. “So what did you two do then? Did you snog in a broom closet or did you hook up under a tree?” I directed this last statement towards Sirius, who had the decency to flush while Bree looked up at me haughtily.  
  
“For your information, Sirius and I spent some time getting to know each other in a disclosed part of the castle,” My mouth dropped open while Sirius whipped his head around to stare at Bree. I was only angry, I didn’t think that she had actually done anything with him. She knew that I had a slight crush on him. “Aw, Alexa, I’m sorry. You didn’t think that your kiss with Sirius actually meant something, did you?”  
  
Searching frantically for a way out of this situation, I grabbed up my things and shoved them into my bag. When Sirius grabbed my arm I finally looked up. Wrenching my arm out of his grasp, I gave a curt nod. “It was just a kiss. It meant nothing at all and as far as I’m concerned it didn’t even happen.” With that note I turned out of the conversation and strode past the desks and shelves out of the library. If I had bothered to look back I may have seen Sirius’ slightly crestfallen expression.  
  
But then it’s a good thing that I didn’t look back.   
  
  
                                                          *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
  
By the time I had actually made it out of the library I was almost in a full sprint, so I didn’t see the person until I ran into them. Groaning as my tail end hit the cold, marble ground I muttered out a sorry as I looked over to the person I had just knocked down. Emerald eyes peered up at me thru a mess of fiery red hair. Lovely, I get to deal with this demon after having a semi-smack down with one of my best friends. “So sorry, Lily, I didn’t see you there,” I said, wincing. My arse really was sore.  
  
Shrugging, Lily stood from the ground and offered me a hand which I looked at momentarily before grabbing it. With Lily’s help, I hoisted myself off the ground. “Yah, sorry too. I should probably watch where I’m going more often.” I laughed slightly as Lily smiled at me. Surprisingly enough it was a genuine smile. I should probably mention that Lily was slightly okay when she wasn’t around Andy Ablo. How do I know this? Well, last year when we were all stressing out about O.W.L.’s Lily graciously shared her notes and some chocolate frogs with me as I crammed in the library.  
  
Anyways, the silence growing between was beginning to get a bit awkward, so I hoisted my bag higher on my shoulder. “I should probably mention to you that James is in there, but he’s in the back actually studying so you can probably slip in without him seeing,” We shared one last smile, a thank you, and a ‘see you later’ and then I was once again walking through the corridor towards Gryffindor Common Room. When I reached the common room entrance some 5 minutes later, my older sibling was being hassled by the portrait.  
  
“If I knew what the bloody password was I would have said it by now! Can’t you just give me a freaking hint? You know I’m in Gryffindor because I come in and out of here everyday. Just open the frick up!” She shouted as she struck her ‘prefect’ pose. I giggled into my hand and walked up behind Lyla, ignoring the Fat Lady as she berated Lyla for her language.  
  
“I believe the password is ‘poppycock.’” I giggled as Lyla turned to face me, her face red and embarrassed as the Fat Lady huffed and swung open. We filed in and surveyed the common room for a place to sit. “So, almighty prefect, how did you of all people not know the password?” She sent a glare my way and made her way to where Blair was sitting, reading a book and periodically scratching down notes on her parchment.  
  
She answered me as we sat down on the chairs surrounding our best friend. “I’ll let you know that while I am a prefect, I am not all knowing.” Blair laughed along with me as she turned the page to her book and marked down a few more notes. “Forget the password again, Lyla?” While Lyla rolled her eyes and we giggled, the portrait hole opened again. This time the person who entered was someone I didn’t want to see.  
  
“Oh, damn it all to hell.” I muttered as he spotted me and bounded his way over to where we were sitting. Lyla and Blair looked up, and when Lyla saw who was coming the look on his face and mine were enough to send her up from the couch. “Let’s leave these two to a little privacy, shall we?” Blair looked up at Lyla and then to Sirius and I and she nodded quickly. She began to pack her stuff, thought better of it, and then motioned for me to make sure no one took anything. I rolled my eyes but nodded as Sirius sat down in Lyla’s place. “You do realize that I don’t really want to talk to you right now, correct?”  
  
Sirius looked down at his folded hands and then crossed his arms. We avoided eye contact as I crossed my legs and then uncrossed them, pulling at my jeans so they would cover my toes. “Listen, Lexi,” Sirius began, irritating me already with that nickname, “I just wanted to let you know that Bree had no business telling you that stuff. And I’m really sorry that she even did,” I looked up at Sirius. His eyes held no remorse for what he hadn’t denied happenng.  
  
“So, you’re saying that what she said was true, but that you’re not sorry that it did happen?” I asked sarcastically, just so I would know exactly what was going on. His face darkened in anger at what I’m guessing was my tone and I leaned forward. “Okay, so did you snog my best friend before or after you pushed me up against a tree and snogged me?” I was being brutal, but I was angry and the fact that Sirius thought he could toy with my emotions was upsetting me more.  
  
“First of all, you didn’t think it was such a big deal because you said it yourself in the library. Secondly, I did snog her after it happened, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not sorry. And thirdly, you ran away from me after we kissed so I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to get from that,” He leaned back in his chair and looked smug as I floundered on the words I wanted to use to express myself.  
  
“That doesn’t make it okay Sirius. None of that means that you can just go around messing with people,” I flung my hands out angrily and glared at the boy across from me. “Just because you think you’re the best thing since flying broomsticks doesn’t mean that other people think you are. And if I recall, you avoided me after the whole incident.”  
  
Sirius scoffed as he retaliated. “Sorry if I didn’t want to subject my feelings to someone as heartless as you. What was I supposed to do, Alexa? Just walk up to you and say, ‘Hey, thanks for running away from me after we snogged.’? Yes, I’m sure that’s exactly what you would have wanted.” I rolled my eyes and stood from the couch.  
  
“Hah, I’m the heartless one? You are the one with no morals, the one who will snog anything with legs whether it’s meaningful or not.” I stalked around the table separating us and stood nearer to him so I wouldn’t have to shout. “And you’re right, that’s not what I would have wanted. So, guess what, now I don’t want anything at all because I think that you’re too chauvinistic and proud to ever have a proper relationship with someone.” Sirius stood up as well, glaring down at me and I tried to bring myself up and not look intimidated.  
  
Curse his tallness!  
  
“Well, I guess that means you have no morals too because you sure as hell snogged me back,” Sirius grinned triumphantly at me when he saw my resolve weaken. I had kissed him back. “Just so you know, I am capable of a decent relationship, just ask Bree. We just started dating.” My eyes widened at his statement and I backed away from him some. “So why don’t you just cool down and then we can forget about all this?”  
  
Giving a slight laugh and a shake of my head, I grabbed my school bag and Blair’s work from the table. “Only when hell freezes over will I ever think of you as a better person, Black. So you can shove it for all I care. Have a good life with my best friend.” I scrambled for the stairs of my dormitory before Black could come up with a comeback and I tried to keep my head down so the people in the common room couldn’t see how upset I really was.  
  
I took the stairs two at a time and when I finally reached the door marked 6th years, I flung it open and collapsed on the closest bed, which happened to be Lyla’s. “Sunday’s hate me.” I bemoaned as she gave me a sad smile and pulled my ponytail out from under my head.  
  
“I know, my friend, I know.”  
  
  
                                                                *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Dinner was a silent affair that night as we ate as quickly as we could. I was over the whole Bree and Black thing by now, but there was no way I was going to forgive them just yet. I knew a boy was nothing to lose a friend over, but I was still hurting that Bree would do that to me. Some would say that she wasn’t the type of friend I wanted to have anyway, but we had been friends long enough for me to know that she was hopefully regretting this.  
  
The upside to this whole ordeal was that I now knew what a bastard Black really was.  
  
Note how I am now calling him Black. This is because I am angry and I don’t want to call him his ‘name’ for now. Possibly later on if he and I become ‘friendly’ again, but for now this is how I will express my anger. While we were in our dorms before dinner, Lyla and Blair had informed me that our slight argument in the common room had actually been full out yelling and I hadn’t needed to repeat anything because they already heard it all. From now on, by Blair’s request for non-violence, I was going to refrain from open confrontation. Oh, but there would be angry letters! Haha! I love bending the rules.  
  
Anyways, Blair and I giggled thru the pudding and desserts as Lyla covertly slipped a few extra pecans on Andy’s plate. The girl was senile about having only 15 pecans per day and this was how we were going to slowly chip away at her sanity until Remus realized that she was a bitch and finally dumped her. This way, Lyla didn’t have to be the other woman anymore and they could bring their relationship into the open.  
  
Andy popped a few more pecans into her mouth, the last of the real 15, and then stared blankly at the remaining 3 on her plate. We waited anxiously to see what she was going to do next. Slowly, bringing her fork closer to poke the nut, Andy glared. Remus looked up from his chocolate cake to watch his seemingly sane girlfriend stare at her plate. “Something wrong, Andy?” He asked while looking from her plate and back to her widening blue eyes. When she didn’t respond he reached out to touch her hand.  
  
Shaking her head, Andy dropped her fork to the side and looked up at Remus while batting her eyelashes. “Perfectly fine, Remy, just miscalculated something from earlier and I only realized it now.” Remus smiled down at her, taking her hand in his and holding then under the table. Blair and I mocked puking behind our hands while Lyla rolled her eyes. She didn’t seem to fazed by the fact that Remus was still holding Andy’s hand, but then I guess she knew who he was sneaking out to see at night.  
  
I reached for my goblet, but stopped as I saw Lily’s piercing green eyes bore into my own green eyes. She had caught us! Worrying for a moment, I shook my head slightly and Lily nodded back, confinming he fact that she wasn’t going to out us to Andy. It’s good to know you have some power with your peers.  
  
Draining the last of the apple juice from my goblet, I stood up from the bench, jostling the third year that was on my left side. “Sorry,” I mumbled as Blair got up and we stepped over the bench together. The little boy blushed and I smiled serenely. “You coming, Lyls?” I asked when she didn’t get up with us.  
  
“I think I’m going to catch up with you guys later, Lily and I have prefect duties tonight.” She smiled when Remus reminded us that he had duties too, and I grinned behind my hand. That cheeky monkey left him out on purpose! “Of course, Remus, how could I forget.” My sister is good, playing the sly mode. Very slick. Blair and I linked arms and did the ‘Queen’ wave as we exited the Great Hall. We made our way to the staircase, saluting to Professor Slugghorn as he passed us.  
  
We jumped the trick stair as James came bounding down the stairs towards us. “Hey Blair! Alexa!” He called out as he kept running and we stopped to watch him sprint down the stairs. “Can’t talk now, but I’ll see you in the common room, yeah?” He yelled to Blair who rolled her eyes and yelled down a yes. As we watched James stop and look around, Sirius came barreling out of one of the corridors that surrounded the Great Hall. He tackled James to the ground and held him down until James begged mercy.  
  
“Get off of me you great baffoon!” James shouted. “I want my wand back you hairy oaf.” Sirius growled. We left the two boys arguing and made our way back up the stairs. When we reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Blair and I shared a private laugh as we gave the password and made our way inside. I left Blair in the common room as I went up to the dorms to shower and to work on an essay. While towel drying my curly hair, I sat on my bed and pulled out my essay from earlier.  
  
Then, before I could get out my quill, my head hit my soft feather pillow and I was out like a light.  
  
                                                           *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
The next morning was a Monday and I groaned when my alarm went off. I curled under my blankets that someone must have kindly thrown around me and closed my eyes momentarily. The next thing I know, someone is yelling at me to turn my stupid snooze button off and get my ‘lazy ramasaki out of bed.’ No lie. Who even says that?  
  
Anyways, when I realized that I had had enough sense to put my pajamas on and take a shower last I night I was very thankful. I have this thing about sleeping in my clothes. I just can’t do it. So, I climbed out of the bed and over to my dresser/closet thing that each girl has and pulled out my clean plaid skirt with the Gryffindor red trim, my gray knee-socks, my white oxford, my tie, and lastly my sweater. “Bathroom?” I question in a slightly raised voice. There is no reply so I walk over to the door and step inside the bathroom. It’s still steamy from someone’s shower and I change quickly, making all the necessary rounds before I can have a steam bath.  
  
When I get out of the room, Lyla is sitting on my bed, already ready for school. I roll my eyes at her as I notice that she has made my bed up as well. “Thanks mom.” I laugh as I sit down by the mirror to start doing my make-up. See the thing about our mirror is that somehow it was ‘accidently’ knocked off the wall at the beginning of school. The good thing is more people can use it now. Lily was adjusting her uniform as I sat down and took out my stuff and we shared a nod. When she went back over to her bed, Lyla came over and stood in front of the mirror.  
  
“Listen, Alexa, I want to tell you something. And it’s really important.” I screwed the top back on my mascara and stood up as I made my way back to my bed to put my stuff away. “We don’t really have time right now, Lyla, I’m starving and class starts in like, half an hour.” She nods and I pull my shoe out from under my bed, shoving it on my foot and not bothering with the laces as I pull on my other one. “Can we talk in Divination?”  
  
She nods and we grab our stuff, throwing one more pillow at Blair who refuses to get up in the morning. She says she doesn’t need breakfast, so we let her sleep until we leave for breakfast. She stirs and rubs her eyes, waving in recognition as she stumbles into the bathroom. What really sucks about Mondays is that the only class I share with Lyla is Divination. I have ranging other classes with Blair and all my classes with James, but I don’t get to see Lyla much.  
  
When we enter the Great Hall, it’s packed and we ended up squashed in between two second years and some random fourth years. I looked around while shoving a chocolate chip muffin into my mouth and waved over to James and Remus who were at the head of the table with Peter and Sirius, the latter not looking up from their food. “See you in Arithmancy?” I shout to James who gives me a thumbs up.  
  
“So, Lyla, are you excited? Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology with Remus for the first two periods!” I raise my eyebrows as she blushes and a few of the fourth years begin to titter. “Isn’t he so dreamy?” I asked them and the join Lyla in the blushing party. “Well, I’m off to lessons, got to get a good seat. See you in third!” I say as I finish my muffin and grab a scone from the pastry plate. I waved goodbye and made my way out of the Great Hall, climbing the many stairs to the Arithmancy classroom.  
  
I hate school.  
  
                                                                  *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Later, I met up with Lyla outside of the Divination tower. James and I were trying to stand far enough away from the ladder so we didn’t get drugged up from the fumes when we saw Lyla coming. She was talking to Remus who must have walked her up here, because I was sure that he didn’t take this class. “I’ll see you later.” She whispered as they neared us and he gave us a hello before turning around and walking back towards his other classes. With everyone in tow, we made our way up the ladder and into the tower. Gagging on the harsh fumes from the incense, I found three seats in the back for our trio to sit.  
  
Usually Blair would sit with us, but she had mentioned before that she had a meeting with McGonagall and would be missing class today. I began to take out my parchment and quill when Lyla handed me the note parchment and motioned for me to get out my special quill. I did so and almost immediately as class started, Lyla began to write. I watched her looping pink script color the paper. Waiting until she was finished, I tried to act like I was watching the Professor teach about something boring. Half the people were already asleep, just like James, whose glasses were pushed onto the top of his head and his eyes were closed and his mouth was hanging slightly open. I giggled quietly and then looked down.  
  
  
 _Alex, listen, don’t get mad at what I’m about to tell you. I didn’t know how to say it at first and then with yesterday I knew it just wasn’t a good time to say anything. Anyways, this probably isn’t the best way to say it, or write it I guess, but I want to do it now before I start to feel really guilty. Not that that’s the only reason I’m doing it._  
  
I rolled my eyes and muttered the incantation as I wrote, my green script matching the pink with a cool color.  
  
  
 _ **What is it, Lyla? You know you can tell me. I’m most definitely not going to freak out on you because that would just be stupid and I don’t want you to feel guilty. Plus, it would go against the angry in public thing.  
  
Anyways, what is it that you wanted to tell me?**_  
  
  
Lyla’s hand hesitated and then her hand shook as she forced herself to write the next few sentences.  
  
  
 _Okay, just promise not to be too mad. The other night, Saturday, when Remus and I were patrolling we were on our way to find this secret corridor he had been telling me about….._ _ **  
You guys were so going to snog!!**_  
  
 _Maybe we were, but stop interrupting._  
  
 ** _Sorry! Continue on with your story please._**  
  
 _Anyways, we found this corridor and I heard this noise. It sounded like people so being prefects we had to go and check it out. It ended up just being these two kids snogging like I told you about in the common room._  
  
 ** _Ew! Who was it, probably some dumb fourth years I bet._**  
  
  
 _Huh, I thought so to at first, but it ended up being Bree…….and uh, someone else._  
 **  
  
……………**  
  
 _Alexa? Please don’t be mad that I didn’t tell you! I just didn’t want to hurt your feelings or get your hopes up. I know how much you really do like Sirius._  
  
 ** _You knew.  
  
And you didn’t tell me? And that’s liked. I used to think I had feeling for Sirius but now I’m definitely sure that I don’t. Why didn’t you tell me? I get the fact that you didn’t want to hurt me, but next time you’ve gotta tell me this stuff. I felt like such an idiot yesterday when I found out._**  
  
  
 _I know! I’m so unbelievably sorry. But, I mean, what would you have done if I had told you? Would you have asked Sirius or Bree or would you have just ignored them both for awhile?_  
  
I paused for a moment and looked up from the parchment to Lyla. She looked sympathetic and I hugged my older sister briefly. She looked back down at the paper, waiting for me to write again and I made sure the professor was occupied before I wrote again.  
  
  
 ** _I don’t know what I would have done. Probably ignored them until they brought it up. It seems unavoidable though, now anyways. I just wish I hadn’t harbored a crush on Black. He’s such an idiot. Can you believe he wasn’t even sorry about snogging me and then just snogging my best friend?_**  
  
  
 _Well, I don’t want you to be upset, but Bree kind of initiated the whole meet up thing with him. And he is just a guy. Most guys are going to think with their penises and not with their brains at this age._  
  
I snorted as I read her response and turned it into a coughing fit as the teacher looked up at us. Lyla hit me on the back while shrugging to the teacher as if she couldn’t help me at all. The teacher rolled her eyes before launching back into her lecture on the all-seeing eye (the same one she gave four times already) and I stopped my coughing.  
  
  
 _Honestly, Alexa, it’s just a word. Let’s show a little maturity. And back to what I was saying, Bree was the one who kind of started it all._  
  
 _ **Sigh. I know. I should be mature. I just can’t believe that Bree would do something like that to me. It’s so mean. I guess we’ll have to talk about this with Blair later though when we watch them practice. We’ll figure it out I guess.**_  
  
 _We will. Don’t worry. : )_  
  
  
I folded up the parchment as the bell rang, symbolizing that class was over. Lyla and I helped James down the ladder and to the Great Hall, where the smell of food revived him somewhat. Before we sat down, Lyla and I exchanged a hug and a smile. I was happy to know that no matter what I had my sister to help me through it all.  
  
We talked about meaningless things for the duration of lunch and James was launching into his tactics for the nights practice when Sirius and Bree dropped down into seats across from us. James went suddenly quiet, meaning he must have known what was going on, and I sighed, “What is the 1-3 formation again?” I asked, encouraging James to go on and showing him that everything was perfectly fine. He smiled and launched into his explanation again and I tried to look interested.  
  
But my eyes kept straying to the gray stare across the table.  
  
                                                                *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Lyla sighed for what must have been the 70th time that night as we sat out on the Quidditch stands watching as the Gryffindor players practiced their plays and their special moves. The team work was outstanding and a certain part of my body ached to be out on the pitch, flying high above everyone else, my eyes and ears straining for any sign of the golden ball I wanted to grasp. So I was a closet player, that meant nothing. I had tried out in my fourth year, but it hadn’t worked out so well. Black had knocked the wind out of me with a bludger and I had missed the snitch, getting beat out by a boy a year below us.  
  
I had also been in the Hospital Wing with two broken ribs, but we don’t like to mention that. Anyways, Lyla was sighing because she had finished all her homework, and while practice was interesting, she had left a rather intriguing novel back in the dorm and she wanted to finish is. “Hold your pea-picking horses, Lyls. The best part of practice is on it’s way to beginning,” Blair stated, watching as James called for everyone to land their brooms and start towards the stands.  
  
I turned back to my card game that I had started with Lily, who had been out here writing some article for her Muggle Studies class. Begrudgingly, I had gotten Blair and Lyla to sit with her and I had hoped they would realize that she was a better person when she was away from Andy. We all seemed to be getting on pretty well, and I was happy to say that she and Blair had even shared a few laughs. Now if only we could bring her over to the dark side (as Andy called us). We did have cookies!  
  
“Well, the practice is pretty interesting so far. Potter has some surprisingly good tactics when it comes to Quidditch,” Lily said while flipping her cards and I groaned. Foiled again! Blair stared at Lily blankly as though judging whether or not to actually say anything or not. Finally, she turned back around to watch her boyfriend yell orders to the others. Lyla waved to Marlene and she grinned slightly back at us.  
  
“I’m telling you guys, watching this much will be worthwhile when they start their suicides.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes, causing me a slight pain in my head. I must be dying of boredness. Lyla came to sit down next to us and watch our card game when Blair squealed excitedly.  
  
She’d been saying that practice was worth it for the better part of practice and I was starting to get hungry. “I can’t believe I missed dinner for this,” I groaned while thinking of the hot buttered rolls that I had smelled when passing the Great Hall. Blair just sent me a twinkling smile as the players trudged to where the stands started, only about 10 feet away from us. “And it begins.” Blair said with a smirk as most of the boys on the team stripped out of their shirts.  
  
“What the hell?” Lyla asked, her eyes riveted on Caradoc Dearborn who was in the year above us.  
  
“The reason I come to these practices.” Blair stated as she watched James, who was shirtless like the rest, blow a whistle and the team started their sprints and suicides. I noticed that Lily was also staring in the same direction as Blair, but I couldn’t get up enough energy to see for sure. My eyes were glued to the tan, black haired Adonis running closest to us.  
  
And then I realized that it was Sirius Black and my mission of ignorance got a whole lot harder.  
                                                               


	6. Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people! So this chapter is in it's original form until we find the time to do some editing, so bear with us here for just a moment! We're just hoping to get this story out fast and then go back and update the writing soon! Thanks for reading!

_Chapter 6:_

_Lyla's Point of View_

I was walking to Transfiguration, when I realized something; I was walking alone, literally, there was no one else in the corridors. I was alone a lot lately. Blair had been preoccupied with James, and they were always together. Alexa had been nonexistent as well. Ever since Alexa had checked Sirius out at Quidditch practice, she had been avoiding everyone especially Sirius. I haven’t even been able to see Remus because he has been spending a lot of time with Andy Ablo, disgusting I know. So here I was, walking alone, while everyone else was off with, or running away from the “loves of their lives.” Ain’t it always the way?  
  
I stopped right before I went into the Transfiguration classroom. Next to me, I heard a sigh. I looked over and saw that a forlorn Alexa was standing next to me. “Hey Lyla.”  
  
“Hi Alexa. What’s wrong with you?” I asked.  
  
“Well, I’m struggling with the fact that I could be in love with my mortal enemy, you know, just the normal stuff,” Alexa replied nonchalantly looking straight ahead. “Oh right,” I responded. “We should probably get to class,” I said. Alexa nodded her head approvingly and we both walked into the class room. When we entered into the room Blair immediately saw us and waved at us to come over. Blair was sitting with James at a desk with Sirius and Bree occupying the desk behind them, Remus and Andy Ablo sitting next to them, and one lone desk right in front of them that Blair had so thoughtfully saved for us. Alexa and I looked at each other with as much enthusiasm as we could possibly muster and headed for our desk. I had a feeling that today’s assignment was going to be death.  
  
As Alexa and I were taking our seats, Professor McGonagall walked out of her office to the front of the class and cleared her throat. “Hmm, hmm, okay class, today we will be changing flowers into butterflies. I will put you into groups of two,” McGonagall began to rattle off names. “… James and Blair, Sirius and Bree, Andy and Lily, and Lyla and Remus,” McGonagall turned to set her parchment on her desk.  
  
“Umm, excuse me professor, but you didn’t pair me up with anyone,” Alexa piped up. The door to the classroom swung open and in walked in Caradoc Dearborn. Alexa’s eyes instantly widened and flooded with life. She looked happier than she had in a while. Caradoc walked past Alexa and flashed her a smile that made even me melt, he was quite cute. The 7th year Gryffindor boy was close to 6'3, with beautiful blue eyes that were 10 times better than anyone's I knew, except for Remus that is, and his dark brown hair made even Sirius Black jealous. The beautiful bastard, why couldn't all guys be like him. Caradoc was also one of the sweetest guys you would ever meet. That, plus his hot body, was enough to make all the girls want to be on him. Mmmmkay, anyways, well, he gave a note to McGonagall and she looked up at Alexa.  
  
“Alexa, since you haven’t been doing as well as I would like you to be doing in my class, I decided to get you a tutor. Mr. Dearborn has so generously offered to help you. Mr. Dearborn is the best in his class and I think you should really utilize you time with him and try to learn a lot. Mr. Dearborn, please have a seat, today we are changing flowers into butterflies, so you should have no trouble with this.” Caradoc made his way to the desk where Alexa was now sitting alone. When Caradoc sat down Alexa gave me a devilish smile and I winked at her.  
  
“So Lyla, should we get started on the assignment?” Remus asked me. I turned to him and nodded my head. “It’s so good to see you,” he said slightly touching my hand on the table. I could feel my cheeks burning a scarlet color. I pulled my hand away and grabbed a flower that was in front of me and started smelling it. Remus also grabbed a flower and set it in front of him. “Will you do the honors?” he asked me, signaling me to change the flower. I positioned myself in front of the flower and pointing my wand at the flower, I muttered the incantation. Mine and Remus’ flower broke into a group of vibrant multicolored butterflies that flitted around us.  
  
“Excellent work Miss Parker, 10 points to Gryffindor!” McGonagall shouted with a bright smile on her face. I looked to Remus who was smiling at me. We looked into each others eyes and it felt like the butterflies I had just transfigured had just entered my stomach. And, then my perfect moment was interrupted by the devil herself. The butterflies in my stomach were immediately squished as I watched Andy Ablo kissing Remus.  
  
I turned back to the flowers laying on our desk and tried to conceal my sadness. It obviously wasn’t working, because when Andy had finished sucking Remus’s face off and he turned around and said, “Hey, are you okay?”  
  
At this I became a little angry. How could he possibly even think that I was okay after having to watch him and Andy right in front of me. “No Remus, I am not okay,” I said coldly turning to look at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked with a concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong with me?” I whispered, “I am tired. Tired of having to hide my feelings, tired of being alone, tired of having to see you with her. That’s what is wrong with me.”  
  
Remus let out a sigh and sat in his chair. We sat there in silence for a while, when he finally said something. “I know that none of this has been fair to you, and I am sorry for making you feel this way. But I can’t leave Andy.”  
  
“Why Remus? Why can’t you leave her? You deserve so much better,” I told him touching his leg in reassurance.  
  
He cupped my hand in his and faced me, “Lyla, you know how I feel about you. I just need more time, I don’t want to hurt Andy, wait just a little longer.”  
  
I heard a certain sadness in Remus’s voice. “You keep telling me to wait just a little longer, but I don’t want to wait anymore. I love you Remus; I just…,” I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I really do love him but I just can’t take it anymore, “… I just don’t want to wait forever.”  
  
I waited for him to say something. To say that would leave Andy and that we could finally be together, but the words never came. Remus released my hand and I began to feel tears cascade down my face. I sat there for a moment and then I got up from my seat and ran out of the class. I kept running until I got to an abandoned corridor. My legs gave out and I sat on the floor and cried. I couldn’t believe what had just happened.  
  
When I finally stopped crying, some hours later, I walked backed to the common room. It was getting dark outside and I figured it was close to dinner time. When I entered through the portrait hole into the common room, only a few people were in there. I made my way up the stairs leading to the girl’s dormitory. I opened the door and I saw Blair and Alexa sitting on my bed talking about something. They both stopped talking and looked at me. “Lyla, what happened? Where have you been?” Alexa asked.  
  
Without saying anything, I walked over to my bed and sat down in between them. “Lyls, what’s wrong?” Blair asked with a worried face. I looked at both of them and then cupped my face in my hands and began to cry once again. Alexa and Blair both put their arms around me. They sat there with me until I finally fell asleep at around 10 o’clock.  
  
I opened my swollen eyes to find that Alexa and Blair were both laying next to me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. There was a blanket of tissues scattered on the bed and some on the floor. I climbed over Alexa and went into the bathroom to wash my face. When I came out Alexa and Blair had both awoken and were yawing and stretching. They both smiled at me and I returned their smiles and went to sit back on the bed with them. We sat there in silence for a moment and then Blair broke the silence, “So, do you want to talk about it?” she asked me with a curious look on her face. I smiled and nodded my head.  
  
After I finished telling them the whole story, they both had astonished looks on their faces. “I can’t believe Remus did that!” Alexa said angrily.  
  
“You poor thing,” Blair added giving me a huge hug, “Do you want us to beat him up?” she asked. I just laughed and hugged Blair back. “Do you want to go get something to eat?” she asked releasing me from the hug.  
  
“No, I’m not very hungry,” I responded.  
   
“Are you sure? It would probably do you some good to get some food in your stomach,” Alexa said pulling me up off the bed. “No, I’m fine, go on without me. I will probably read in the common room or go for a walk,” I indicated. Alexa shrugged her shoulders and then her and Blair both left to get some breakfast. After they left I grabbed a book and headed down to the common room. I sat down on a couch in front of a burning fire and opened the book and began to read. It wasn’t too long after I began reading that some one sat down on the couch beside me.  
  
I looked up from my book to find Lily Evans standing next to me with a smile on her face. “Hi Lyla,” she said in that sweet voice of hers. To be completely honest, I was a little shocked that Lily had even talked to me. “I saw that you were sitting here alone, so I decided to come over and say hi,” I shook my head and entered into an awkward pause. “Um, I just wanted to see if you were okay. You seemed pretty upset yesterday when you ran out of Transfiguration.”  
  
Lily was one of the last people I wanted to discuss my problems with. “Um, I’m okay, thank you,” I said a little confused as to what was going on. She sat down on the couch next to me and smiled. Afraid of an awkward conversation, I tried to move away from her to put some space in between us. She didn't notice and I was relieved on the inside. I thought she would get the point and leave the couch but she didn't and I started to sweat profusely and swear in my mind. I was going to punch a small child if she didn't get up.  
  
“I also want to say I’m sorry,” she said looking sincere. “For what?” I asked even more confused. “For calling Blair a slut,” she responded. What was going on? Since when is Lily Evans nice to me and since when does she apologize for calling people names? Was she going through some kind of anger management program? What is this, 12 steps for Lily Evans? I was waiting for her to be like, 'Hi, I'm Lily, and I have a problem.' Her sincere expression never left her face. Maybe she truly was sorry. “Do you think we can just put all of this behind us?” she asked.  
  
I sat there for a few moments acting like I was thinking about what my answer was going to be, when in reality, I was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I decided to accept her apology, “It’s fine. By the way, I’m sorry for turning you into a frog,” I said with a slight smile on my face. Lily burst into laughter.  
  
“That was quite funny,” Lily said through her laughter. I began laughing with her. When we both stopped laughing we, yet again, slipped into an awkward silent moment. Lily finally stood up and said, “Well, I have to get going,” I let out a sigh of relief. I so desperately wanted to thank her for releasing me from this hell hole. She turned and walked towards the portrait hole. “Bye Lyla, see you around,” she said waving. I waved back and she was gone. I had no idea what just happened and I didn’t really feel like trying to find out.  
  
Not too long after I had my strange encounter with Lily, Alexa and Bree had come back from breakfast. Following close behind them were James, Sirius, Bree, and, of course, Remus. I was still too upset to deal with people, especially Remus. Alexa must have noticed my concerned look on my face because she came up to me and said, “Hey, you want to go out for a walk and get some fresh air with Blair and I?” I looked up at her with a relieved smile and hopped up off the couch and linked arms with her and Blair as led them out through the portrait hole, avoiding any eye contact with Remus.  
  
…………………………………………………………………  
  
As Alexa, Blair and I skipped down the corridor back to the portrait hole, I suddenly remembered that there was going to be a good chance that Remus would still be in there and I would have to talk to him. I stopped skipping and Alexa and Blair also stopped to see what was the matter. “Why did we stop skipping?” Blair, who seemed to be overly enjoying our skipping, asked.  
  
“Remus might be in there,” I responded looking straight ahead at the portrait.  
  
“That is a definite possibility, considering he lives there,” Alexa said in a sarcastic tone. I shot a glare at Alexa. “Okay, look, I know that you are hurting, and I don’t blame you, but you just need to act like nothing is bothering you. Don’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that he hurt you. Just put a smile on your face and march through that common room like you own the place,” Alexa advised me.  
  
After a few minutes of thought, I decided to take Alexa’s advice. “You know what Alexa, you are absolutely right. Let’s go,” I put a smile on my face, spoke the password to the Fat Lady and when the portrait swung open, I took a deep breath and walked through it into the common room with Alexa and Blair trailing close behind me.  
  
Just as I suspected, Remus was sitting on one side of the common room, accompanied by James, Andy Ablo, Sirius, and Bree. I immediately steered to a couch on the other side of the common room and plopped on a couch followed by Blair and Alexa. The couch was positioned to where I could still see Remus, but if I needed to, I could hide from his sight.  
  
All three of us were unintentionally staring over at the group. James was playing chess with Remus, while Andy played with his hair and was whispering, what I could only assume, were some sort of evil devil spells to strengthen her power over Remus.  
  
“Look at them. They make me sick,” Alexa said with disgust. “I know,” I responded still staring at Andy and Remus. “I can’t believe we were ever friends with her,” Alexa added. I looked over to Alexa who was looking not at Remus, but at Sirius and Bree. I immediately understood my sister’s disgust. Sirius was sitting in a chair with Bree straddling him. Bree seemed to be eating Sirius’s face and was giggling and laughing so loud that you could most likely here her from miles away.  
  
“That is utterly disgusting! She is literally sucking his face off. I don’t see why anyone would want that on top of them,” Alexa said shaking her head with anger as she stared at Sirius and Bree. Bree stopped kissing Sirius turned around suddenly and saw that all three of us were staring at her and Sirius. We all quickly looked away and Blair started whistling.  
  
We all waited a while until we looked back over to where Sirius and Bree had been. Instead of finding Bree sucking Sirius’s face off, we found an empty chair. “Where did they go?” Alexa asked searching the common room for Sirius and Bree’s figures. Blair and I both shrugged our shoulders. “I’m going to head up to the dorms, do you guys want to go?” Alexa asked us.  
  
I nodded my head and stood up. “No, I don’t think I am going to head up yet. I think I will go and talk with James for a little while. I will meet you up there later,” Blair told us. Alexa and I just shrugged and Blair walked over to where James seemed to be losing at chess.  
  
Alexa and I started to make our way up the stairs to the dorms. We were talking about her new, very cute, tutor that she had gotten for Transfiguration when we opened the door to the dorms. Alexa stopped dead in her tracks and got silent. “What?” I asked. She said nothing, all she did was point over to her bed.  
  
There, on Alexa’s bed, was Bree, with her shirt off, and Sirius with his shirt half unbuttoned. Bree was ravaging Sirius’s body and was making all sorts of weird noises. My mouth dropped open and I let out a small gasp. Sirius must have heard my gasp and sat up on his elbows and had a mortified look on his face. Bree slowly rolled off Sirius to face us with an evil smirk on her face.  
  
“Oh, Lyla, Alexa. I am so embarrassed. I didn’t hear you two coming up the stairs,” Bree said nonchalantly. I looked over to Alexa, who I expected to be furious, especially since they were on her bed. Much to my surprise, Alexa was the opposite of furious, she seemed to not even be bothered by the fact that her ex-best friend was snogging and groping the boy who she used to like. My mouth remained open in shock as I looked back and forth from Alexa’s cool face to Sirius and Bree. “I’m so sorry that you two had to see us like this,” Bree said with a smug look on her face staring down Alexa.  
  
“Oh don’t worry about it. The fault is entirely ours,” Alexa said with a warm smile on her face. My mouth opened even more. What was going on? I looked to Sirius, who seemed to be just as shocked and surprised as I was. “No need to stop on our account, I just have to get something out of my trunk.” Alexa walked over to her trunk, rummaged through it for a moment and pulled a notebook out. “Please continue,” Alexa said before turning to leave and walk back down the stairs back to the common room. For some reason I just couldn’t move. I finally snapped out of it. Before I left the dorms though, I looked back at where Bree was sitting unsure of what had happened and Sirius was sitting with a semi-angry face. Preparing myself for what I was going to say I took a deep breath and gave them my best bitch attitude.  
  
“You  _disgust_  me.” And with that I spun around and scurried out the door. I'm proud to say I did not trip like Alexa would have. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Alexa was waiting there for me looking down at her shoes. “Hey don’t worry about it. You know they won’t last,” I added reassuringly.  
  
Alexa just looked at me and simply said, “I’m not worried about it. I honestly don’t care what they do; so don’t worry about me because I don’t care. I do not care at all.” Even though she said she ‘didn’t care’, I knew Alexa better. She always would repeat stuff when she was angry, but I wasn’t about to press the issue (especially since she didn’t care).  
  
We both returned to the couch that we had been sitting on before. After a few moments of silence, I remembered the conversation that we were having before, well you know. “So Alexa, tell me about your new found interest in Transfiguration,” I said looking quizzically at her.  
  
When I said this, Alexa’s face lit up and she scooted a little closer to give me all the details. “Oh my god, Caradoc is so nice, he is very funny, and not to mention, unbelievably gorgeous!” Alexa squealed. “He is extremely smart, has a hot bod, as I’m sure you already know, and he is good at quidditch. He is pretty much the perfect guy. I personally just can’t wait to have another Transfiguration class. I have never wanted to study more than I do now,” she said through her laughter. I couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Alexa in a library, let alone in a library studying.  
  
I noticed that Alexa’s gaze drifted over to the stairs going up to the dormitories. I also shifted my gaze there. Bree had just emerged, with Sirius right behind her. Her hair was unnaturally untidy and her shirt was buttoned wrong. Sirius, on the other hand, had managed to button his shirt right and had a dazed look on his face. They both headed over to where Remus, James, and Andy were.  
  
Blair had made her way back over to us and plopped onto the couch right in between Alexa and I. “Did you see them?” Blair asked nodded towards Sirius and Bree. She had no idea how much we actually saw of them. I shuddered at the thought. “So did anything interesting happen while I was away?” I looked at Alexa and we both started to laugh hysterically. “What? What happened? What are you guys laughing at?” Blair asked with a very confused look on her face. We both just laughed even harder and all three of us made our way up to our beds.  
  
The next morning, after breakfast, I went to the library to write my paper for Ancient Runes. Right when I was in the middle of writing a sentence, some one put their hands over my eyes. “Guess who.”  
  
I let out a sigh, “Alexa, I have been your sister for 16 years, I know your voice.”  
  
“Why must you crush my dreams?” she asked jokingly. She knew darn well that I don’t like to be interrupted when I study. However, ever since 1st year, she has always seemed to disregard this rule.  
  
“I don’t have time for games right now Alexa. I have a…” I was cut off mid sentence because someone had called my name from behind me.  
  
I turned to find Lily standing behind me. “Hey Lyla, I just wanted to remind you that we have prefect duties tonight. We are going to meet in the Great Hall at the usual time,” I smiled and nodded. “Okay, well, see you later tonight.” Lily waved goodbye and then scurried out of sight.  
  
When I turned back to face Alexa, she had a curious look on her face. “Umm, what was that all about?” she asked.  
  
“You know what, I’m not even quite sure,” I said truthfully, “but that is really the least of my worries. I have prefect duties tonight,” Alexa motioned with her hand for me to go on because she didn’t understand the severity of the situation, “I have prefect duties tonight, with Remus.”  
  
“OH, well that sucks,” she said. Oh how I loved my sister. You can tell she really cares about my problems. I stood and collected my books and headed out of the library. “What? Was it something I said?” Alexa shouted after me.  
  
After dinner, I knew that the time for me to go do prefect duties was near. The end of my life was inching closer and closer with every second that went by. To say the least, I was not looking forward to spending the whole night with Remus. Maybe Lily would pair us up with different people, oh I hope so.  
  
When the time came for me to face my doom, Blair and Alexa bid me goodnight, and I headed down to the Great Hall. By the time I had gotten down to the Great Hall, nearly all the prefects had arrived. “Okay, we are going to go ahead and get started,” Lily said in a very assertive voice. “We are going to split up tonight again with the same person you were with the last time.” Shoot, I thought to myself. I looked up at Remus, who was giving me a weak smile from across the room. “Alright, so off you go.”  
  
Remus slowly made his way over to me. “Hey,” he said in almost a whisper. I just turned around and completely ignored him and walked out of the Great Hall and went up to the 3rd floor to patrol. The sooner we patrolled the floor, the sooner I could leave.  
  
After about an hour of silence, Remus spoke, “How long are you going to not look at me?”  
  
“As long as I want to,” I responded coldly.  
  
“Will you please just look at me and talk to my face.”  
  
“No, I think you can ‘wait just a little longer,” I said making quotation marks with my fingers.  
  
Remus grabbed my arm and jerked me towards him. “What is your problem?” he asked me.  
  
He seriously had the nerve to ask me that? “You are my problem,” I spat at him yanking my arm out of his grasp.  
  
“This is really stupid,” he said raising his voice.  
  
“Oh yeah? Well, it’s your fault,” I shouted poking him in the chest. At this moment something happened that completely caught me off guard. Remus grabbed my face and kissed me with so much passion that when we separated, I had to catch my breath and balance. It was probably the most amazing kiss that I had ever had. I stood there for a moment just looking at him, then I did something completely out of character.  
  
I threw myself at Remus kissing him as passionately as I could. Remus stumbled back against a wall as I wrapped my arms around his neck. He entwined his fingers in my hair, and quite frankly, we went at it. As Remus kissed my neck, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I shifted my head to see better, but I wish I hadn’t. When I looked down the corridor, I saw someone who could most likely destroy my life. Only a few feet away from where Remus was nibbling on my neck, stood none other than Lily Evans, a.k.a, Andy Ablo’s best friend. Super!  
  
I tried to push away from Remus but his hold around me was too tight. “Hey, Remus. Remus, um, stop for a second,” I said still looking down at Lily who had a shocked and scandalous look on her face.  
  
Remus finally stopped and looked into my eyes, “What? Did I do something wrong?” I looked down the corridor raising my eyebrows towards Lily. He slowly turned his head and whispered under his breath, “Shit.” Remus quickly stepped away from me and we both turned to face Lily. She stood at the end of the corridor with her arms crossed and her foot tapping a steady rhythm on the floor. I looked over to Remus who shared the guilty look that I had on my face.  
  
Lily slowly motioned with her finger for us to come to her. I started to move towards her but Remus wasn’t moving with me. I looked back to him and said, “Remus, come on,” he shook his head at me with a scared look on his face. “Seriously Remus, come on,” he yet again shook his head, “get up here right now!” I said grabbing his arm and pulling him along with me.  
  
The walk over to where Lily was standing, seemed to be miles long. As our walk of shame came to an end, we stopped right in front of Lily, keeping just the right amount of distance between us. I was really nervous as to what was going to happen. Lily was known to have a really bad temper, and I was afraid. Lily opened her mouth and I panicked, “Lily, it’s not what it looks like!” What was I saying?  
  
A slight smirk crept across Lily’s face, “Oh good, because it looked like you and my friend’s boyfriend were snogging, but it’s not what it looks like so, that’s a relief.”  
  
“Okay, so it looks exactly how it looks,” I said, Remus shooting me a glare.  
  
“Lily is there anything we can do to get you to not tell Andy about any of this. I want to be the one to tell her, I don’t want her to find out from someone else. So is there some kind of deal we can work out between us?” Remus asked looking hopeful.  
  
Lily remained silent for a while thinking tapping her finger on her lips. She let out a sigh and said, “You come to me with a proposition tomorrow evening, and I will consider it.”  
  
I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. With out thinking, I lunged forward and hugged Lily. “Thank you so much! Did I ever tell you you’re my hero?” I said hugging her tighter.  
  
Lily patted me on the shoulder and said, “Okay, let’s not go overboard here.” I released Lily from my grasp and she turned to leave saying, “I will see you tomorrow evening.” And then she disappeared into the night.  
  
“Bloody hell, that was close,” Remus said sliding down the nearest wall to sit. I walked over to where Remus was and sat beside him. He took my hand in his and looped his fingers between mine. I leaned my head against his shoulder.  
  
“Now, all we have to do is figure out a way to bribe Lily so she won’t tell Andy,” I reminded him. “Got any ideas?” I asked.  
  
“I have absolutely no idea. Do you?” I shook my head. “Who do we know that can easily manipulate people and get them to do anything they want?” I immediately thought of someone who had basically been manipulating people his whole life. The person in question, was, of course, Sirius Black. Ever since first year he had always manipulated girls with his so called charm. I mean, if you think about it, he can get a girl to do what ever he wants them to do, it’s really kind of sick when you think about it. In any case, I really didn’t want to have to ask Black for any sort of help at all, given my current view of him, I decided to keep my revelation to myself. Remus’s face lit up and he opened his mouth with excitement and said, “I know the perfect person, Sirius!” joy. It looks like I will just have to suck it up and ask Black for help, but you can be darn sure I am going to be as mean as possible about it.  
  
Remus hopped up off the floor and pulled me up. We hurried back to the common room to see if Sirius was still awake. When we entered the common room, we found Sirius sitting on a couch, shockingly reading a book. We approached him and Remus said, “Sirius, are you reading?”  
  
Sirius looked up from his book and responded coolly, “Why yes I am, my good man.”  
  
“You can read?” I asked with a cold sarcastic tone.  
  
Sirius had a small smile on his face. “Yes, my dear Lyla, but I try not to make a habit of it,” he said. “What can I do for you two this evening?”  
  
“We need your help, Padfoot,” Remus said plainly.  
  
The smile on Sirius’s face widened, “Hmm, a Parker sister asking me for help? I thought this day would never come. Let me just have a moment to savor this moment,” he said closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.  
  
I rolled my eyes as he ‘savored the moment.’ “I don’t need your help. I just need a suggestion, not help,”  
  
“You are just as stubborn as your sister, but I am willing to lend my knowledge to you. I think of it as educating the less fortunate,” Sirius said leaning back against the back of the couch. What a wanker. “Tell good old Sirius what the problem is. Did someone finally catch you two?”  
  
My eyes widened, “You know?!” I asked.  
  
“Of course I know, I'm Sirius Black, I know all,” he responded casually.  
  
“How did you find out?” Remus asked looking at Sirius quizzically.  
  
“Well, it's really wasn't that hard to figure out. All the stolen glances and the secret snogging. I am honestly surprised that more people don't know.”  
  
“Did you tell anyone?” I asked hoping that his answer would be no.  
  
“No, Moony is my best mate, I wouldn't hurt him,” he said patting Remus on the shoulder. “So tell me who found you two doing your dirty deeds.”  
  
Remus told him how Lily caught us, and when he finished, Sirius rubbed his chin. Sirius finally leaned forward to say something. “Okay, so here's what you do, you lure her into a dark corridor. You then you take 6 feet of rope and tie her up and lead her to one of our secret passage ways. Then you simply just bribe her with sex, drugs, and a little rock n' roll,” he said with a proud look on his face.  
  
“That has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard in my life!” I shouted at him. He was zero help, I knew we couldn't count on Black. “Thanks for the suggestion, but no thanks. I think we will manage just fine without you.”  
  
“Have it your way. Good luck coming up with something as brilliant as what I came up with,” he said shrugging and getting up to leave. “'Night Moony. Lyla, always a pleasure,” he said flashing me a smile. I just rolled my eyes at him.  
  
As Sirius made his way past us, I had a stroke of brilliance, as I often do. “I've got it!” I excitedly proclaimed, “You know how the prefects are in charge of the Halloween dance on Saturday?” Remus nodded his head, “Well, that Saturday is also a Hogsmeade day and the prefects have been asked to skip the Hogsmeade trip to stay and set up for the dance. So, we should offer to cover for her so she can go to Hogsmeade.”  
  
Remus sat there for a moment and then said, “I think that might work. You are amazing,” he said kissing me on the cheek. Remus pulled me up off the couch and walked me to the stairs leading up to the girl's dorms. Before I turned to go up the stairs, Remus grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. “Goodnight, have sweet dreams,” he said kissing me again, but on the lips this time.  
  
When he released me from the kiss, I couldn't help but blush. “Goodnight,” I said before turning to head up to my dormitory. At that moment I had a feeling that things would be looking up real soon.


	7. Best Friends are the Worst Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "That is to say, if I hadn’t tripped on the suit of armor as I went in search of the others. But I suspect that the armor had done it on purpose. It seems everyone is out to get me these days."

_Chapter 7:_

_Alexa's Point of View_

In everyone’s life, there will be one moment of time where you wish you could just stop and remember it forever. Throughout all my sixteen years, I have had numerous moments that I wish I could preserve, but this one took the cake (in a manner of speaking). Currently I was crouched behind an old suit of armor that kept peering over his silver shoulder at me and I was watching the scene in front of me. Almost four days after Lyla and Remus had been caught doing the dirty things in the corridor, they had decided to execute their plan on an unsuspecting Lily Evans. I had the proud pleasure to watch.  
  
We were in a remote corridor next to some empty classrooms, where I had brought Lily saying that there was something that Professor McGonagall wanted up here. She, being the goody-two-shoes that she is, followed me blindly and as we rounded the corner I pushed her to where Lyla and Remus had been waiting. Now, they were all standing awkwardly in a triangle, none of them willing to speak yet.  
  
Remus gave a sigh and finally opened his mouth. “Lily, I know that you found Lyla and I earlier this week doing some things that some people might deem inappropriate,” He was cut off by Lily letting out a indignant huff and waited until she was finished rolling her eyes to continue speaking. “While I don’t believe either of us are exactly sorry for what we were doing, we have decided that we shall take you up on your offer of bribery.”  
  
Lily crossed her arms over her chest and shook her red hair from her eyes. “I don’t like to think of it as bribery. It makes me sound like a corrupted government official or something.” I saw Lyla straining to keep her smirk to herself while I smiled from behind the suit of armor. If Lily wasn’t such a bitch, I do believe she would fit right in with our group of friends. “Let’s just call it an exchange of fortunes.” I really did laugh at that and her head whipped around to see where the noise was coming from. I put my hand over my mouth and was saved by Lyla.  
  
“Okay, so for this ‘exchange of fortunes,’” Lyla said using air quotes around the new term, “We thought that since you’re basically in charge of this Halloween dance tomorrow and since you can’t go to Hogsmeade with the rest of the school, Remus and I would cover for you so that you could go.” Lyla and Remus smiled identically and Lily pondered this idea for a moment.  
  
“While that all seems fine and very tempting, I wonder, how is it that I’m supposed to get in and out of the castle without being seen by a professor? Also, what am I to do if a professor doesn’t believe whatever excuse you give for me being absent from my duties?” I rolled my eyes at Lily’s lack of adventure and was making a face behind the suit of armor when I felt something brush my arm. Sucking in a deep breath and closing my eyes, I readied myself for either a blood-curling scream or a devious right hook.  
  
“Please don’t hit me.” I heard in a familiar, rushed whisper. I opened my eyes to find myself staring into the steely grey eyes of someone that I didn’t have the wish to speak to or see for the next 15 years of so. I felt more than heard his hot breath on my cheek and I turned my head so fast that my braided pigtails hit me in the eye. Damn him and his stupid way of making me feel like an imbecile at the worst possible times.  
  
“Just don’t speak to me, Black, and maybe I won’t have to hit you.” I winced a little as my words came out harshly. Okay, so I’ll admit it, I was being a right wanker. But then again, so was he. I knew that I shouldn’t be acting like this; hadn’t it been me who had told him that nothing that had happened between us made any difference to me? Before I could make a bigger idiot of myself, I tuned back into the conversation going on outside of my hiding spot.  
  
Apparently, I hadn’t missed much. Lily was still trying to have Remus explain the secret passageways and Lyla still looked like she was going to jump off a building if all this didn’t end soon. “So, let me get this straight; I follow Black or Potter out one of these passages, get in to Hogsmeade where someone will hand me a map, and I’ll be fine as long as I find one of your other friends before it’s time to come back for the last of the preparations?” Lily asked while still looking skeptical. I knew as soon as the words left her mouth, someone was about to blow a gasket.  
  
“Yes, for the third and final time, Lily! That’s how you do it. Now, do you think that you could maybe tell us if you’re going to go for the whole deal or not? I’m bloody tired and I want to go get dinner before I have to help Alex find her Transfiguration stuff.” Lyla and Lily were now staring at each other, getting ready for a throw down. Giggling slightly, I turned almost subconsciously to my hiding companion. I sobered up as he looked at me with a stunning ferocity, and I found myself looking at his lips as he watched me.  
  
“So you’re studying later in the library. With Dearborn. For Transfiguration.” He said each short sentence as a statement rather than a question, and I watched as his mouth formed each letter. I nodded my head and we continued to watch each other, slowly moving closer in the small confined space. He was still whispering and I felt like I was under some sort of spell.  
  
“And you and Bree are still a thing. Which means that us being this close shouldn’t be happening, we shouldn’t even be talking together.” I said without thinking, even though the last thing I wanted him to do was move away. I could feel the warmth radiating off his body, and I wanted to hug him, but I didn’t want to hurt Bree. Even after all this time, I still didn’t want to hurt her. “So we can’t be this close, Black. You need to move.” My mouth was barely moving, but I knew he could hear me by the way his face fell slightly, like he was losing some precious toy that he wanted to have but couldn’t get.  
  
“And this is what you want me to do?” He asked, his mouth moving to speak into my right ear as I closed my eyes and tried to focus on what Lily’s answer was going to be to Remus and Lyla. Being this close, I had to think of anything to keep my mind off the 16 year old male sitting so close to me.  
  
“Yes.” I whispered quietly, and suddenly his warmth and his breath were gone. I opened my eyes to find him standing away from me, smirking slightly. I bristled.  
  
“Okay.” He spoke at the same time as Lily had and I whipped around in time to see Lyla jump up and hug Lily briefly. “Thank you, thank you!” She was saying over again, while Remus smiled and looked relieved. I sighed, feeling like the weight of not worrying about my sister having her face punched in was only being replaced by the weight that I had almost fallen for Sirius’ tricks again. Speaking of which..  
  
I turned back to Sirius, who was leaning against the wall behind the armor and smirking at me. “What’s wrong, Lexi? You don’t look too happy with this little predicament.” I knew his words were meaning two different things and my anger bubbled up inside of me again.  
  
“Get out of my face, Black,” I tried to walk past him and into the open where I could find Lyla and get to dinner, but his hand sped out and grabbed me before I could get by. “Don’t touch me, or I swear you will not know what’s coming for you.” I threatened as he leaned in closer to me.  
  
“I think you want this, Lexi. The thrill of doing something you know you can’t do. You want that.” His words were meant to seduce me, at least so I thought, but I wasn’t going to be falling for that one. Wrenching my arm out from under his hand, I narrowed my eyes to slits.  
  
“If I want to do something bad, I’ll ransack the Slytherins.” In what seemed to me as a last attempt, I found myself being pulled back around and pushed against the armor, a little rougher than necessary. Before I knew what was happening, Sirius had captured my lips with his and was giving me the most searing kiss I had ever experienced. Coming back to my senses, I shoved him roughly in the chest and he staggered away from me. “I warned you once, Sirius. Don’t. Touch. Me.” With a resounding smack that echoed off the empty corridor walls, I had slapped Sirius stingingly and, if I do say so myself, walked off in a very dramatic and satisfying way.  
  
That is to say, if I hadn’t tripped on the suit of armor as I went in search of the others. But I suspect that the armor had done it on purpose. It seems everyone is out to get me these days.  
  
As I basically sprinted down the stairs to the Great Hall, I almost sped past Lyla who was waiting for me outside of the main doors. “Slow your horses, Alex, you look like you’re running from your death.” I put my hands on my knees as I caught my breath and she raised an eyebrow questioningly at me. I held up a hand as I sucked air into my lungs, exhaling all the carbon dioxide out of my body. Have I mentioned that I need to start working out or doing something?  
  
“Let’s get into the Great Hall before the Golden Couple get there, I would like to keep my dinner down tonight.” I said as I searched around the Entrance hall for said couple. It’s Bree and Sirius, if you were wondering. Everyone in the school talks about how cute they are together; both popular and beautiful, both conniving little bitches. Even the first years are obsessed with how adorable they are together. Whatever, gag me. “That sounds like a plan, but don’t think that you’re going to get out of telling me why you were making a fool out of yourself by running through the halls like that.”  
  
I nodded briefly and straightened up before we entered the Great Hall. The great hall was crowded as usual and the sounds of life and merriment filtered in around us. I’m sure that we both felt the giddiness in the air, but Lyla and I looked at each other with a sort of forced cheerfulness. While I knew why I wasn’t feeling my best, I looked carefully at Lyla to see what was wrong with her. “I’ll tell you when we get to the table and can talk with Blair.” She whispered from the corner of her mouth, having the ability to read my mind like most siblings seemed to be able to do.  
  
“Alexa! Lyla! Come over here, I saved you seats.” Blair called from her spot next to James at the Gryffindor table. With an exchanged glance, Lyla and I made our way over to where she was waving. I sat down across from Blair, while Lyla sat on my left, leaving an empty seat between where Remus was sitting. “As your best friend, I know that something is wrong. Not only by the dejected way that you just sighed, Lyls, but also by the way Alexa is sitting like she has a straightening charm on her back.” Taking a breath, I slouched more as Blair continued. “So, what I’m trying to say is, spill it.”  
  
Glancing around nervously at James, who was seemingly engrossed in his food while Peter sat talking to him, I looked back to my best friends and motioned them to come closer. “You know how I was ‘spying,’ that term used loosely, on Remus, Lyla, and Lily while they spoke?” I waited for their responses (a nodding head and a smirk) before continuing. “Well, I was just sitting behind a suit of armor when someone crouched down behind me. Being me, I thought it was a Slytherin or someone who would want to hurt me and I almost hit them.”  
  
Lyla groaned while Blair laughed quickly. “Please tell me you  _didn’t_ hit them. I don’t want to come to your rescue if you get detention again.” Lyla said while I heard a muffled snicker from across the table. All three of our heads whipped around to see James, his face flushed red and a small smirk on his face, continue eating his potatoes like nothing had happened. I rolled my eyes as Blair hit her boyfriend playfully on the back of his head.  
  
Leaning back in so to speak more privately, I answered Lyla. “No, I didn’t hit them, but now I wish I had.”  
  
“What? Why would you want to hit someone who wasn’t a Slyth…” Blair broke off as her eyes widened in realization. I pursed my lips and nodded. “Oh, well then. I wish you had hit them too.” While Lyla glanced around at us, confused because she didn’t know what we were talking about, I used my peripheral vision to see James. It looked as though his ears had perked up just a bit when he heard that Blair had realized who I was talking about. See, the thing was that even though James and Black are practically brothers and since Blair dates James and should therefore be friendly towards Sirius she is most definitely not. I was happily surprised that as soon as I professed my hate towards Sirius, she quickly took my side in ignoring the cheeky bastard and glaring at him every chance she got.  
  
Sure, it caused some tension between she and James, but he seemed to respect her opinion (and mine), and let the subject fizzle out. “What the heck are you guys on about now? Tell me who you’re talking about and why you were running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” Lyla whisper shouted at me. Blair rolled her eyes at Lyla and beckoned her closer.  
  
“We’re talking about you-know-who doing something that has obviously upset our Alex and that is probably why she was running around.” Lyla nodded though she still looked confused and I sighed dramatically. “I’m talking about Black sneaking up on me in the hallway, proceeding to try to win me over and seduce me, and then kiss me.” Simultaneously, three things happened: Blair and Lyla narrowed their eyes, James’ fork flew out of his hand, and the doors to the Great Hall were flung open, revealing the Golden Couple in all their glory.  
  
As James apologized to Remus, who had been hit by the fork, I looked down at my empty plate suddenly feeling myself lose my appetite. “He’s coming over here with  _her_ , Alex. Are you going to be okay or do you want to go find your stuff for your study session now?” Lyla asked while covertly patting my hand to reassure me. The G.C. (Golden Couple, if you didn’t realize) made their way over to our table and with panic I realized whom the open seat next to me and the one across from James were for.  
  
I was getting ready to say that I wanted to leave when Sirius passed by us on the other side of the table. “Leaving so soon, Lexi? Not afraid that you’ll trip over an inanimate object again are you?” Feeling my hands grip the table with so much force I thought it would break, I lowered myself back into my seat which was now smushed between my sister and my ex-best friend.  
  
“Nope, I’m perfectly fine Black.” I said while beginning to fill my plate back up with food that I didn’t really want to eat. I turned to look back at Blair and Lyla but they were both staring at my plate. Wondering what was up, I looked down again to see a frog sitting conspicuously on my chicken. “Oh, that’s okay, I wasn’t that hungry anyways.” I pushed the plate away and looked to my right where Bree was sitting. She looked over to Sirius angrily while emotions I recognized played in her eyes. Anger and hurt. Two things that I would have tried to find the reason for when we had been friends.  
  
Turning away, I heard James whisper a ‘not now’ to Sirius and then the frog on my plate was vanished and James was giving me a small smile. I was going to say thanks when Andy Ablo screeched from the other side of Remus. “What do you mean you’re not coming to Hogsmeade?!” I saw a slight smirk pass over Lyla’s face as Andy got up and raced from the hall, heavy, black mascara rivers streaking down her face. Remus sighed, looked longingly at his food, then looked over to his fellow Marauders. “Wrap my plate for me, yeah?” and then without waiting for a response, he walked slowly from the hall with his hands deep in his robe pockets, book bag haphazardly hanging from his shoulder.  
  
“Tough break there.” Blair laughed as Lyla spoke in a not so sympathetic voice. I was laughing along as well and then Bree giggled from next to me. “Aren’t you happy we aren’t like that, Siri?” I paled at the horrible nickname, while Blair took on a disgusted face and James mimed puking. I didn’t have to look at Sirius to know that he had winced. Hah! Serves him right.  
  
He mumbled something unintelligent, and then Bree was reaching across the table for him. And so ensued the tonsil hockey game of 76’. Frowning and turning away from the couple was all I could think to do before I felt someone’s hand pulling on my arm. “Let’s get the shell out of here.” Lyla said as she tugged me up. With one last look at the disgusting display of affection, Lyla, Blair, James, and I left the Great Hall.  
  
“So where are we going to go now?” James asked while he held up a plate piled with food that he had obviously nicked from the Great Hall as we were leaving. “Assuming that that plate is for Remus, I guess we should go to the Common Room. I have to find my ever elusive Transfiguration stuff.” I said as I walked up the stairs with my hands gripping the banister for balance. I didn’t have to turn around to know that my friends were following, but I did turn when I heard heavy footsteps next to me. As I knew that Lyla’s footsteps were light and quick and Blair’s were in tempo with whatever song she had been listening to earlier, I had to assume that the footsteps were James.  
  
I looked over to my side and saw James looking at me with concern in his hazel eyes. I tried to match my step to his slow ones as Lyla and Blair sped past us, each giving me a small smile that told me they knew what this all must be about. “Hey, Alexa, you okay?” James asked quietly and I was surprised for a moment not to hear his loud boisterous voice. You see, James had many ranging tones that came to him when he spoke. He used a loud, laughing voice with his friends, a slight authorative one when he spoke to teachers or to younger students, and a slow, soft voice when he spoke to Blair. Concern was one that I had never heard before; though I figured he used it with his friends when Remus was sick or ‘going to visit his mother.’ Which if you ask me was a load of bull.  
  
Anyways, I looked up at James who had a good four or five inches on me and shrugged my shoulders noncommittally. “Of course, James. What could possibly be wrong with me?” I asked in what I hoped was a calm voice but it was coming out with more of a hysterical note. James grasped my wrist as I took a step up and I stopped to turn around. His raised eyebrow and slight frown told me that he knew what was going on. “No, I’m not really okay. But you can’t tell anyone!”  
  
With a surprised expression at my outburst, James pulled me up the rest of the stairs and onto the next moving staircase which would take us up a few more flights to the common room. “Calm yourself, Alexa, especially if you don’t want everyone else to know.” When we were sure that no one had jumped onto the stairs as they continued to move, James continued. “Okay, now, what is all this about? I know Padfoot was being an idiot, but I didn’t think you still liked him.”  
  
I groaned and put my hands to my face. Did everyone know that I had liked Sirius as more than just an acquaintance? Sweet Circe! “He stole my best friend from me and ruined what I thought was a good friendship between me and him.” At least, that’s what I said; it seems that having my hands muffle the words and it came out as “Stosh fronda lee ruwha gustash bewu shoma.” James let out a quick laugh that was silenced by the glare that I gave him as I peeked through my fingers.  
  
“I’m sorry, I seemed to have missed that.” He said through his snickering. I rolled my eyes and repeated myself and then waited to see if James would defend Sirius or not. When his rebuttal didn’t come, I adopted a curious face and watched him for a moment. While different emotions played across his features, James’ face became animated before he stopped and gave me a frown. “He’s an idiot sometimes, Alexa. You just need to tell him to shove off and then maybe you two could talk it out or something,” He paused and rubbed a hand over his face, “Did you ever pause to think that he might have liked you as more than just a friend?”  
  
“Then why would he have snogged my best friend right after I thought we were going to be something more?” I came back with as I stepped off the staircase and began to walk down the corridor towards the Common Room. James’ face registered what I said and I was less than surprised at the fact that he new about my little ‘session’ with Sirius awhile ago. He sighed and then shrugged his shoulders in defeat.  
  
“I don’t really know, Alex.” I looked up at James quickly as we reached the portrait of the fat lady in her obnoxious pink dress. Really, what is the point of a dress like that? She’s in a portrait for Merlin’s sake. Anyways, where was I? Oh, yes, looking at James.  
  
“Alex, huh? You do realize that I only let my very best friends call me that, yeah?” With a caught in the headlight expression, James tried for a smirk that wasn’t the least successful. “I’m only kidding, James. You know that I consider you one of my best friends.” I spoke the password to the gossiping portrait, who sniffed at me snootily, and James slung an arm around my shoulder as we passed through the hole.  
  
“Well I feel so honored now!” He exclaimed as we went over to where Lyla and Blair were sitting, my Transfiguration things spread out on the table in front of them. Blair raised her eyebrow as James fell down across her lap and sprawled across the couch. “I was just informed by Alex here that I am one of her best friends.” Laughing giddily, he clapped his hands together and smiled like Christmas come early.  
  
Blair laughed and ran her hand through his messy, black locks whilst trying to get them untangled. “Don’t feel to honored, Potter, she’s been letting me call her Alex since we met.” Ignoring the two bickering lovers, I looked to Lyla who was stuffing my things in my bag rather viciously.  
  
“Let’s not break anything, Lyls. I would like to actually  _do_ my homework this time.” She glanced up at me and then dropped her hands from my things while pushing them over towards me. It was only after she glared in the direction behind me that I noticed she had her fist balled around a crumpled piece of yellow parchment. “Give it here. Let me see what’s got your knickers in a twist.” I pried the parchment from her hand while looking behind me to see Remus sitting by the fire reading a note.  
  
As I looked from the note in my hand to the note over in Remus’ hand I noticed that the parchment was the same coloring and was probably written at the same time. I sat down on the arm of Lyla’s chair so I could read it with her.  
  
  
 _Game over, Parker. I’m not going to sit around and watch you try and steal my boyfriend anymore. So, you win. Remus and I are officially over.  
  
Get a life.  
  
Andy*_“Oh, well, that sucks. The part that she told you to get a life and how she was using Remus as if he was some kind of prize. But, I mean, he kind of is the prize if you think about it. He’s pretty attractive if you like that kind of dark, troubled soul.” I looked up from my ramblings to see Lyla giving me a bewildered look. I backtracked immediately. “Not that I like him or anything. Shouldn’t you be happy though? I mean, now you guys can bring your whole deal out into public and not hide anymore.” Glancing back over behind me, I saw Remus get up from his chair, send Lyla a helpless glance, and then stalk up the stairs to his dorm.  
  
“He doesn’t want to bring it out into the open.” Lyla said in a dark voice while shooting fire at him from her eyes. Not that she literally shot fire or anything. Anyways, I digress.  
  
My eyes narrowed in on the boys staircase, scaring a first year who was making his way down them. He tripped and skidded down the last five stairs but this was of little concern to me as I was more concerned for my sister. “That’s crazy! You know that he would give anything to be with you for real, Lyla, maybe he’s just doing this so you don’t look like a slag to the school. Dating someone right out of a breakup could do that for you.” I tried to reason with her as she frowned and then looked down at her hands while shaking her head. I was about to continue when I felt someone tap me on my shoulder.  
  
“You ready to study, Alexa?” I found myself nodding absentmindedly as I stared into sparkling blue eyes, rimmed in a darker blue that almost looked black. Caradoc smiled lazily and I found myself returning the grin while someone laughed behind me. Snapping out of the trance and flushing deeply, I turned back to Lyla who was handing me my book bag, now stuffed with all my things. “You going to be okay, Lyla?” I asked while lifting myself off her chair and standing next to Caradoc, who was politely interested in the ground and not eavesdropping.  
  
“I’ll be fine, Alex; besides, I’ve got these two buffoons on the couch to entertain me until you get back.” There was a cry of protest as Blair shoved James, rolling him onto the ground, and then I was rolling my eyes as I slipped into what I hoped looked like a hardcore studier mindset. I think I probably just looked angry. “Let’s go, then.” I said to Caradoc, and together we made our way out of the portrait hole and to the library.  
  
\-------  
  
“Caradoc, this is so bloody boring I think that my eyes are going to fall out of their sockets.” Rubbing the aforementioned eyes, I glanced at the boy sitting across the table from me who looked vaguely amused at the sight of me. Sigh. Who knew Transfiguration could be so stupidly boring; even with a cute boy trying to teach you it? “Can we at least take a short break?” I simpered trying my best to give him my puppy dog eyes. Rolling his eyes at me, Caradoc nodded the affirmative and shut my book gently.  
  
We’d been in the library now for almost an hour and I had learned a bit, but not nearly enough to say that I was now fluent in the art of transfiguring things. Needless to say, these study sessions were probably going to need to be continued. Not that I minded or anything; if there was one thing I was learning it was that Caradoc was real looker. Not only that, but he was so kind and his voice could even drive McGonagall mad. Ahem. Anyways, I looked up to see Caradoc grinning at me and suddenly I realized that he had asked me a question. “Um,” I started, racking my brain for something to say, “I think that is exactly right.”  
  
For a moment, I thought I must be right…..and then he burst into laughter. Okay, way to sound smart Alexa. “So you think that Madam Pince and Madam Pomfrey are lesbian lovers?” He laughed more and I felt my face flushing. Well, that is most certainly not what I thought he was going to say. “Come on, Alexa. I knew you weren’t paying attention so I had to ask you something.” He said when I glared at him pointedly.  
  
“Yes, but did it have to be something so perverted?” I asked snippily. With another laugh, he got up from his chair and came to kneel down next to mine. Oh, sweet Merlin’s hairy leg, he’s not going to propose I hope. That would be terribly uncomfortable. He turned my chair and caused my heartbeat to quicken as he grabbed my hand. My left hand. Solemnly, he raised his eyes to mine.  
  
“Alexa,” He said softly and I about passed out from sheer ecstasy, “Can you forgive me?” Oh, well that was a downer. But he does look so terribly cute right now, his auburn hair falling into his eyes. Acting without thinking, I reached down and brushed his hair out of his eyes. He smiled up at me and I felt myself grinning goofily. Note to self: must control idiocy around cute boys.  
  
“I guess it all depends,” I said as he rose from the ground and towered over top of me, leaving me eye level with…well, I think you can guess. I averted my gaze to look up at him slyly, “What will you do for forgiveness?” I wiggled my eyebrows up at him and then looked pointedly at his ‘area.’ He laughed loudly and I bit my lip to keep from grinning. Although, if I thought about it, I am really half-serious about this whole thing.  
  
“Who’s the perverted one now, Ms. Parker?” He questioned, and I joined in on his laughter. Sitting in the chair beside me, we continued to laugh until someone came out from behind a bookshelf. Quickly snapping my mouth together to silence myself if it was Madam Pince, I was surprised when I heard the person behind me speak.  
  
“Alright there, Dearborn?” Good gravy, Black again. Biting my cheek to keep from saying something to him at not speaking to me, I watched out the corner of my eye as Caradoc smiled up at Sirius. “Not too shabby, Black. How about you, that’s a pretty nasty shiner you’re sporting.” Sirius scoffed and for the first time since I knew he was behind us, I turned to look at him straight on and wow did he have a black eye. So, I didn’t think that I had slapped him that hard or anything, maybe he just bruised easily? As guilt began to fill my stomach, I watched Sirius reach up and poke around his eye.  
  
“It’s not as bad as it looks, really.” Sirius lamented and Caradoc rolled his eyes at him. I could practically hear what he was thinking. “Hopefully it will be gone by the Hogsmeade trip tomorrow. I wouldn’t want to have to charm my face or anything. That would kind of suck.” He sent a look my way and I pretended to be engrossed in the closed book on my desk. Way to look cool, Alex.  
“I thought the dance was a costume party, so can’t you just cover it up with some sort of disguise?” Caradoc asked perplexedly and I rolled my eyes at them. “He just doesn’t want to cover up his girly features.” I murmured under my breath, but I hadn’t known that Sirius had ears like a dog (for real, they heard everything) until he growled at me. I’m not even kidding, the kid growled at me. Like he was an angry bear and I was a person who looked ripe for the eating. I stared at him, a little surprised, and watched as Caradoc looked back and forth between us.  
  
“You two going to be alright or would you like to settle this alone?” He asked as he made to get out of his chair. I broke my gaze away from the heated grey stare, and looked at Caradoc as innocently as I possibly could. Putting my hand on his arm, I ignored Sirius as much as I could ignore a big, black cloud hanging behind me. “It’s fine, he’s being stupid. Besides,” I said while pulling his book closer to us so he wouldn’t leave to the other side of the table, “We’re not finished studying yet.” I subtly put extra meaning on the word study to see what kind of reaction I would get, but I was slightly disappointed when all I heard was Sirius turning to leave.  
  
“Have fun tutoring the less fortunate, Dearborn.” Caradoc laughed slightly while I pouted in my chair, glaring at the back of Sirius’ black hair. “Don’t get too close to her either! I think one black eye is her quota for the day.” With that he raised a hand and walked back through the aisles of the library. Damn it all to hell! Caradoc was now staring at me with a tentative look, as well as an amused one, and I felt that he either wanted to run and was too nice to do so or he was just going to make fun of me. I kind of hoped it was the latter and not the former because I kind-of-sort-of liked him. Maybe.  
  
Anyways, I continued to look down at the Transfiguration notes that Lyla had given me to borrow. When Caradoc didn’t say anything, I let out a sigh and began to pack up my work. “Thanks for helping me out. I know it’s not been an hour yet, but I’m kind of tired so we can just call it,” I didn’t look over as I continued to try and organize my things like Lyla had done, but I stopped when I felt a rough, calloused hand on my arm. His blue eyes locked with my green ones and my breath hitched in my throat.  
  
“Did you really give him that black eye?” He asked while somehow drawing me in closer with just his eyes. I nodded my head weakly. “I admire you for taking Black down a few notches.” He grinned and then did something that we would most certainly be reprimanded for by the librarian later, but I couldn’t have cared less at that moment.  
  
He kissed me.  
  
\------  
  
“Alex, are you positive that you want to do this? I mean, this is permanent and you can’t take it off. Plus, if mom and dad find out,” Lyla trailed off as Blair rolled her eyes and thumped Lyla in the back of the head. “She’s sixteen now, and should be doing things by herself. Plus, if she was in America she’d be old enough to drive.” Blair reasoned as Lyla rubbed her head and took turns glaring between Blair and I.  
  
I laughed as I sat in the rigid, straight-back chair of Magical Methods of Masquerading or the MMM as most people commonly referred to it. I had no idea why it was called that, but I do know that it has nothing to do with masquerading. It does, however, have everything to do with clothes, shoes, and piercing. Which is why I was sitting in this god-awful chair and twisting my hands together in my lap. Nervously, I might add. Late last night, when I had finally made it out of the library, then out of the Common room into my dorm, I had decided that there was something about me that I didn’t quite agree with.  
  
It was the fact that I was plain. I wasn’t as intellectual or witty like Lyla, I wasn’t bubbly and carefree like Blair, and I wasn’t striking like Bree. There was nothing about me that made me stand out from the crowd. So I had decided that today, in Hogsmeade, I was going to get a piercing. When I had told Lyla and Blair they had both been rather excited. That is, until I told the what type of piercing I wanted to get. Then Lyla had been pissed and Blair had grinned at me. “This is going to be so much fun!” Blair squealed as Madame M (go figure) came out with the piercing gun.  
  
Per Lyla’s request, we had gone through everything that would sterilize the gun and the plain, silver stud even though this was a top-notch place. There were people from school shopping in here, and I saw a brief flash of red hair go by us. Of course, Lily would have to be the one to come check out who was getting shot. Madame M told me to hold perfectly still, and I grasped Lyla and Blair’s hands as I waited for the pain. Closing my eyes so I couldn’t see her, I gritted my teeth when I felt something cold and smooth press against my flesh. “Here we go.” I heard Lyla whisper and then…..  
  
“Mother of Merlin’s left, hairy ball-sack!” I screamed out as pain shot through my body. “Shit, shit, shit!” I repeated as Blair helped me fan my burning skin and Lyla laughed with Madame M as they went to get me some ice. Not caring who in the world could hear me or what the other people in the store thought of me, I began to feel queasy and I bent over to put my head between my legs. And that’s when I saw the blood. “Holy hell, I’m bleeding!” I squeaked, terrified that something had gone terribly wrong. Blair brought me back up and examined the piercing.  
  
“It looks fine, Alex, I think that it’s going to bleed a bit. I mean you just got something akin to a needle shoved through your nose.” Biting back the feeling of throwing up all over the nice clothes, I tentatively reached my hand up to feel my nose. I smiled to myself when I felt the tiny stud in my left nostril and was only a little frightened when I lifted my hand away and saw the deep red color that was my blood. “Does it look alright?” I asked earnestly and Blair ginned widely.  
  
“It’s like a whole new you, Alex.” I squealed, in happiness this time, and pulled Blair into a hug just as Madame M and Lyla were coming out from the cleaning and kitchen like area. “Everything looks fine back there, so it’s safe to say that your clean.” Lyla stated like she was the authority in the business. Madame M rolled her eyes and gave me a towel that was wrapped around a big hunk of ice. I let her clear away the little blood that was left and then I held the ice up to my face. Ah, instant gratification.  
  
She smiled at me when she saw that I was past the screaming part. “Now, it’s going to be a little sore for a while, but you can take a potion for that. Also, it’s got a charm on it so it heals properly but you’ll still want to take care not to get anything in there. Make sure not to rip it, scratch down your nose harshly, and pull at it. That would cause it to reopen and become infected.” I nodded my head and watched as Lyla began to mentally take notes. Dweeb. “So, it’s okay to put make-up over the swelling, just make sure that you take it off later. That’s about it.”  
  
I smiled widely at her when she was finished and she gave me a warm hug. “I love making people happy.” Madame M said as she led us over to the register. “Now, I’m doing this for free because I feel like it. Is there anything you may want? Any rings for after you can change it?” I shook my head no, but I ended up buying some long dangly earrings for tonight’s ball. After we had paid and were making our way out of the store, I finally looked at Lyla. “Do you like it?” I asked while trying to appear nonchalant.  
  
“Besides the fact that mom and dad are going to kill you, I do like it. It looks just like you.” I smiled at her and we linked arms, Blair joining us, and meandered through the streets of Hogsmeade. When we had reached the bookstore, Lyla pulled us inside and I finally got a good look at myself as we passed through the door. Everything looked the same, but yet everything was different somehow. My face seemed to be glowing, and despite the ugly swelling of the piercing site, I thought I looked pretty.  
  
“There’s Remus, I’ll be right back.” My sister said as she took off after the sandy haired boy like a woman on a mission. Blair and I made our way over to the center of the store where couches and chairs sat so people could browse the books before buying. “Do you have anything to reduce the swelling for me?” I asked Blair as I shoved my hands into my black, hooded sweatshirt’s pockets.  
  
“Do I ever not have something?” Blair asked rhetorically as she began to rummage through her purse. I dug around in my dark blue jean pocket and found my tube of chapstick. I put some on and then returned it back to my pocket just as Blair flopped down on to the couch beside me. “Hold still.” She said as she furrowed her brow and went to work applying a bit of cream to my face. When she was done with that, we sat talking quietly on the couch and analyzing Caradoc when Lyla came stalking through the store towards us.  
  
“What the hell,” I trailed off as Lyla grabbed my hand, pulled me up from the couch, and took my bag as she dragged me and Blair from the store. She was red faced and fuming as she just about pulled our arms from our sockets and Blair and I looked at each other with scared faces. We were passing Honeydukes and I was staring longingly at the chocolate covered strawberries in the window when we suddenly came to a halt. “I’m not supposed to be here.” Lyla ground out as we slid into an ally way.  
  
“Calm yourself down, Lyla, what the heck are you talking about?” Blair asked, inching away from my sister as Lyla paced back and forth. Then I realized something and felt the pit of my stomach drop down to land on the floor. “The bribe. You and Remus are supposed to be up at school.” I breathed out and the memory of Lily slinking around MMM was brought to mind. “Lily’s in Hogsmeade and if Andy finds out that you and Remus were going at it while they were dating you are going to be so dead!” I said while Lyla’s face turned pale and Blair gave me a ‘why would you say that’ look.  
  
“Just get back to school, Lyla. Run.” Blair said while trying to push Lyla forward and back onto the streets. “I can’t just do that! Lily was in the bookstore talking to Remus and she saw us in Madame M’s store. I’m so freaking screwed!” With a groan she put her face into her hands. Thinking fast, I looked over to Blair who was staring at me in the same way. We had to have a plan to get Lyla to school without Lily actually thinking that she had been with us. Blair opened her mouth to speak first.  
  
“This is what we’re going to do, Lyls. You make you’re way to school as fast as you can. Don’t stop to talk to anyone or anything, just keep going. Alexa and I will head off Lily.” Lyla gave us a look that asked how. “I don’t know yet but we’re going to make this alright. Go!” Blair shoved Lyla one last time and Blair and I ran from the alley-way, just in time to see Lily exiting a store across the street. Bite the bullet, Alex. I thought to myself as I cupped my hands over my mouth and yelled out across the street.  
  
“Hey, Evans, wait up!” Lily turned quickly and saw me waving. She moved to cross the street and we met in the middle. “So how are you? Enjoying your day in Hogsmeade, yeah?” I asked conversationally while Blair just smiled behind me. Lily looked between Blair and I, smirking but still looking suspicious. “I’m sure it is. Any who, we were just wondering if you wanted to go to Honeydukes with us, maybe get a drink at the Three Broomsticks later; we could discuss costumes if that sort of thing interests you?” I was rambling and both she and I knew it, but for some reason she was letting me continue on. When I was finished making an idiot of myself, Blair cut in.  
  
“We just think that we should get to know you better. I mean, why have we never really become friends before now?” Blair tried to look as if she herself was trying to figure the same question out. Lily’s resolve began to soften and I figured that now was the time to go for the kill. “So what do you say, Lily,” She registered a little shock at me actually using her given name, “You up for some candy shopping?” We looked at her with identical faces, trying to get her to come with us. I felt a little bad because we were sort of using her, but then again, this may turn out to be really great.  
  
“Sure, I guess. I don’t see why not.” Lily said and with the stress of asking her out of the way, we made our way over to Honeydukes where we could get the finest chocolate and candy for a low price. Sigh. Isn’t it great? As we stepped inside the store, Lily turned to look at me. “I like your thing,” She said while motioning to her nose. I laughed.  
  
“Thanks, Lily. I just wanted to do something unexpected for once, you know what I mean?” She nodded and we made our way around the store, talking and occasionally laughing at one of the third years who were just coming in. They were gazing excitingly at all the numerous amounts of candy and the new types of things that they had probably never had before. “Look at the little kids. They’re adorable! Do you remember when we were like that?” Blair asked while reaching down to ruffle one little girl’s hair. The girl looked annoyed, realized it was Blair who was dating the popular James Potter, and smiled at her while blushing. Not that I wouldn’t be annoyed, they were 13 so they weren’t that little.  
  
When we got up to the counter to pay for our things, the three Marauders that weren’t supposed to be at school popped inside. “Blair-bear!” James shouted across the store and Blair narrowed her eyes while looking at her purse. “I wish he would just stop with that stupid name,” She muttered before turning around to face him. “I thought I told you to stop calling me that?” She asked him, even though she was hugging him like he would fly away. From the corner of my eye, I saw Lily turn away from the couple and take interest in a display next to the counter. Whether this was from jealousy (doubt it) or from just being polite (probably) I didn’t know.  
  
“Okay, that’s enough P.D.A for one day.” Sirius muttered and I looked up at him. He wasn’t looking at me, but I could still see that his face was a little bruised, but not as bad as yesterday. Hm, he must’ve gone to see Pomfrey. I turned away from him and looked to Lily who had finished looking at the display and had joined us again. “Hey there, Evans, what are you doing here with them?” Sirius asked obnoxiously. I wanted to hit him in the face with a shoe, or a package of ice mice, but I didn’t get the chance before Lily took up for herself.  
  
“For your information, Black, Alexa and Blair are very nice people.” For a moment, their eyes locked and then Sirius backed off, raising his hands in the air in the sign of surrender. We stood in silence for a moment before James clapped Blair cheerily on the back, almost sending her flying to the floor if he hadn’t had his arm around her. “On a lighter note, this Halloween bash is going to be lots of fun tonight.” James spoke with a note of mischief in his voice. I nodded and then Lily and I began to walk forward, away from the rest of them and to the entrance/exit of the store.  
  
I heard Blair telling James to meet us at the Three Broomsticks when he was done here, and then she was caught up with us. As the door shut, I heard a, “Did you see Alexa?” from one of them and then the door was closed. We continued to walk down the street in silence for a few moments and then, “I think we should go back up to Hogwarts.” I looked over to Blair who was looking down at her feet and then to Lily who was looking at Blair with a surprised face. “I’m just not feeling too well.” Her face was pale and she seemed to be sweating even though it was chilly outside. Brushing my curly hair away from my face, I linked my arm through hers incase she decided to faint on us.  
  
“Okay, you should probably rest before this thing tonight.” After we bid Lily goodbye, Blair and I made our way back to the castle. We had barely made it to the common room before Blair had hit the couch and fallen asleep, jerking my arm out as she plopped down. I sighed, and with a roll of my eyes pulled out my Transfiguration homework, vowing to get some work done before I partied it up tonight.  
  
\------  
  
“I feel pretty, oh so pretty. I feel pretty and witty and….” I trailed off, forgetting the last word as I pirouetted around the dorm room, feathers flying around as I spun. For Halloween this year, I had the brilliant plan to be a peacock, hence the feathers that were now strewn across the room, my body, and through my hair. Blair and I had spent most of the afternoon after her catnap, painting my legs, arms, and face in different colors. The rest of my costume consisted up a tutu that was dyed a deep purple. I had piled my curly hair into a bun atop my head, and was wearing a head-dress of peacock feathers. I was the first one ready and I spun over to Lyla who was sitting in front of our mirror on the floor.  
  
“It’s gay. Pretty and witty and gay.” Lyla said as she sat on the floor to finish applying her makeup. Raising my hands to my face, I looked in the mirror at the overdone eyelashes attached to my regular eyelashes and smiled. I had eyeliner drawn out from my eyes and underneath them, plus enough mascara on to last Andy a lifetime, but Blair had charmed it all so it would come off and so it wouldn’t weigh me down. My sister, dressed up as an American Mobster, was not in such a good mood right now. She had been down in the Great Hall putting up decorations for the better part of the after noon and was tired and irritable.  
  
“Okay then, you better watch yourself Lyls, I’m thinking you might pull a gun out of your bust at any moment.” She glared at me as she glanced down at her pin straight black dress and pushed her hat down along her curls. She had her pin-striped black hat, thousands of pearls hanging from her neck, a huge diamond on her finger, and pumps on. Her make-up consisted of big, red lips, dark lined eyes, and powdered face. All in all, she really did look like a mobster. “Kidding, kidding.” I muttered as I came over to help her off the floor.  
  
There was a screech from the bathroom and I looked towards the door. It had been emitting those strange noises since we came up here to get ready and I stifled my laughter as Blair came wobbling out. She was dressed as a mermaid in a pink halter bathing suit top, a sparkly blue tail, and she was adorned in seashells. And they were everywhere. Like me and my feathers. She had them charmed to her skin as a bracelet, in her hair as clips, and on her ‘tail.’ She was barefoot like me and her hair was pinned back halfway.  
  
“I’m going to kill myself before the night is over.” She sighed as she stashed her wand in her tail. Kinky. Anyways, we were ready to leave now, and as we were the last people in the dorm, we shut the lights off and cast a quick cleaning spell to clean up all the feathers. I was so immature! I was still smiling at myself as we entered the Common Room where there were still some people hanging about. We saw Lily and Marlene talking by the entrance, both dressed as groupies to some muggle band, and I burst into laughter when I saw two people waiting for us on the couch. There, dressed as a spitting image of Professor Dumbledore (only with hazel eyes and not blue) and a scowling Professor McGonagall (only with playful grey eyes), sat Sirius and James.  
  
“I don’t think that I’m going to be able to dance with you tonight, James,” Blair said through her giggles as she straightened up and looked at James with a smirk, “It’s too creepy.” With a twinkle in his eyes very similar to what the real Dumbledore would do, he stood up from the couch and extended an arm to Blair. Trying not to smile too happily, she took his arm and they walked towards the exit of the Common Room together. Which left Lyla, Sirius, and I in a very awkward silence. With his hands thrust into his (or I guess her) pockets, Sirius looked us up and down, rolling his eyes when he figured me out.  
  
“Birds of a feather flock together.” He said very scholarly like and I sent him a confused look while Lyla rolled her eyes. I swear, if we do that any more, we’re going to have rolling eyes forever! That’d be bit freaky. “Either of you seen Bree?” Sirius threw out as he looked up at the staircases. Shaking my head no, I made my way to the portrait hole as well. As Lyla made her way to the boys stairs to wait for Remus and Sirius began to walk closer, I practically flew (ironic, right?) out the door and down to the Great Hall, probably leaving a feather trail behind.  
  
The Great Hall was decorated miraculously in many different colors and there was jack-o-lanterns, bats, and candles floating around the room. Gobs of candy corn, caramel apples, and suckers littered the tables set up at various intervals in the for corners of the room. The main floor consisted of a impromptu dance floor and a stage where a band had been set up to sing and play. The dancing was well underway, and teachers were scattered around the room (some were actual students, some the real thing) to watch us and make sure we weren’t up to anything too horrible.  
  
“They did a terrific job, didn’t they?” Someone from beside me spoke. I looked up at first, a bit alarmed to see someone who looked a bit like a punk-rock singer, and then recognized the person as Lily. She had gone full out groupie look, with the dark make-up, streaked hair, black nails, and chopped up t-shirt and jeans. I laughed at her super beat-up boots and she smiled. “You look great, by the way, have you taken flight yet with all those feathers?”  
  
Sniggering, I bit my lip from laughing to much. “Almost on the way down here, but I got it under control pretty quickly. I need no broken bones.” She nodded her head and we both turned to the dance floor, where I noticed her gaze went towards the odd couple of a mermaid and Dumbledore. The couple was laughing and spinning around in what you could call an interpretive dance. Or maybe not. “They really are good together, aren’t they?” Lily asked me while continuing to stare at the couple. Blair laughed as James dipped her to the ground and then brought her back up; his fake beard swinging all over the place.  
  
“Yes, they really are.” I commented while looking down at my bare feet. I wiggled my toes to make the sparkly nail varnish twinkle in the low lighting and then I clapped my hands together when I saw someone at the candy table. “Have a good night, Lily; I’ll probably see you out there.” I gestured towards the dance floor, and then with a quick goodbye, I made my way over to where I saw Caradoc standing, dressed very cutely as Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind. “You know if you twist the stem and say the alphabet the letter is of the person who likes you.” I said from behind him as he picked up an apple dripping with caramel sauce from the table.  
  
With a smile, he turned around from the table and held the apple in his caramel hand. “Let’s see it then,” Smirking he pulled hard on the stem, twisting one time. It popped off without a hitch. “Hum, that would be an A. Interesting.” He grinned widely as I blushed and tried not to look too shy.  _Don’t freeze up or make an idiot of yourself, Alex. And please for the love of your Mum, don’t lick caramel off his hands!_  
  
  
Smiling and watching him bite oh-so-temptingly into the apple, I had to comment back, “Well, fancy that.” I grinned even wider, proud of myself at the non-sexual, un-perverted comment. Making progress, I was. “So when you finish that apple, I know a girl who starts with an A that would love to dance.” Demolishing the apple with ease and precision, he licked the caramel from his hand and smiled at me. Sigh. If that wasn’t swoon worthy, I don’t know what could be. Especially now that his lips probably tasted like caramel. Anyways…  
  
So, ignorant to the thoughts going through my mind, I took Caradoc’s hand and we went to the dance floor to commence having a good time. All was going well and I was laying my head on his shoulder as he held my waist during a slow song when I saw it; Bree, dressed as a flapper, slapped Sirius across the face and stormed out of the Great Hall. Sighing, I made myself stay in Caradoc’s arms so I wouldn’t go after my ex-best friend.  
  
Did there always have to be drama?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hope you enjoyed Chapter 7, and the story so far! From this point on, there won't be much editing happening in the way of rewrites, so if you see something that doesn't gel, please let us know so that we may fix the mistakes! XOXO


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